




^0 


















'^.^a. 
















^ 

^ '^^ V^ 

x^^^. 



\^ O N c. -/^ - ,p 



^% 









■^>. ^^^ 




.> ^^ /.v::4:^% /*\'':-;'>.^ ,^°V>^>:% 



•/^ 






^ t^S" 



^♦^••"-'. 



-k y\ 



N C 



<;. V^ 






-OO^ 






^* .r»- 



SAMUELL GORTON 



The Rhode Island Series^ 



1. Mary Dyer of Khode Island, the Quaker 

Martyr that was hanged on Boston Common 
June 1, 1660. By Judge Horatio Rogers. 

2. A Summer Visit op Three Rhode Islanders 

TO THE Massachusetts Bay in 1651 : its inno- 
cent purpose and its painful consequences. 
By Henry Melville King. 

3. Samuell Gorton : a forgotten founder of 

OUR liberties ; first settler of Warwick. 
By Lewis G. Janes. 



IN preparation : 

4. Thomas Olney, Junior, Town Clerk. By Ed- 
ward Field. 



Uidfonn, 12ino., cloth, $1.00 net eaci). 



SAMUELL GORTON: 

A FORGOTTEN FOUNDER OF OUR LIBERTIES 
FIRST SETTLER OF WARWICK, R. I. 



BY 

LEWIS G. JANES 

Author of "A Study of Primitive Christianity, 

ETC. 



"More ideas which have become National, have emanated 
from the little Colony of Rhode Island, than from all the other 
American States."— George Bancroft, in Address before the 
New York Historical Society. 



PRESTON 



1890 =r-*-^'bO I 



''n^ 






Copyright, 1896 

BY 

PRESTON AND ROUNDS 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



TRESS OF 
E. L. FREEMAN A- SONS, PROVIDENCE. R. I. 



L PREFACE 

I 

^ It lias been tlie misfortune of Rhode Is- 

i land to have had its earlier history written 

h and read under the bias of prejudices eng-en- 

dered by the controversies which led to its 
^ settlement. Justice has not yet been done 

V to the prescience and statesmanship of the 

J remarkable men who were the builders of 

the first Commonwealth in the world's his- 
tory dedicated to Soul Liberty. 

Among- these men, none were possessed of 
<a personality more striking and picturesque 
than the subject of this paper, Samuell Gor- 
ton. The cordial reception of this brief his- 
torical sketch by the distinguished audience 
which gave it a hearing before the Rhode 
Island Historical Society has induced me to 
consent to its publication. It has since been 
carefully revised, and a few doubtful points 



VI PREFACE 

have been cleared up as well as the character 
of all available data will i^ermit. 

I am indebted to Mr. "William D. Ely and 
Mr. Charles Gorton, of Providence, and Mr. 
Adelos Gorton, of Philadelphia, for valuable 
aid and suggestion in perfecting this revision. 
It is hoped that the publication may stimu- 
late further research in the interesting field 
of our Colonial history. A native of Ehode 
Island, the writer traces his ancestry by two 
distinct lines to the Mayflower, while the 
first of his family name in America was one 
of the earliest settlers of the New Haven 
Colony. He is therefore able to approach 
the subject without undue bias of ancestral 
prejudice, and Avith the sole desire of vin- 
dicating the truth of impartial history. 

L. G. J. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., May 25, 1896. 



SAMUEL L GORTON 



A FORGOTTEN FOUNDEIl OF OLK LIBEinTES 



The town of Warwick, R. I., is not 
to-day of remarkable interest to tlie an- 
tiquary or seeker after the venerable 
relics of bygone days. It has ''come 
ont into the newness" of our nineteenth 
•centnry life. Its streams respond to 
the mnsic of the flying shuttle and the 
turning ^vheel ^vith a dash and hurry 
^almost human in their restlessness. Half 



•8 SAMUELL GORTON 

a score of flourishing manufacturing vil- 
lages lend their potent aid to make it 
the sixth town, in population, in the 
State having a larger number of inhab- 
itants to the square mile than any other 
in the American Union. 

The old Colonial and Kevolutionary 
dwellings were lai'gely, doubtless, of a 
humble sort, and have given place to 
the more prosperous farm-houses and 
pretentious mansions of a generation that 
know^s not the ways of the fathers. The 
busy Pawtuxet and its tributary streams, 
partly excused from the drudgery of mill- 
turning by the more potent substitutes 
of the later day, are pumped away to 
(juench the thirst of the distant city 
whose contentions a quarter of a mil- 
lenium ago drove Samuell Gorton* and 

*Both Samuell Gorton, Sr., and his eldest son, spelled 
their first name with the double "L." 



SAMUELL GORTON 



his colleagues to seek their homes in 
the Shawomet wilderness, there to be- 
come the founders of a State. 

Yet the Warwick of to-day, in its 
summer dress, w^ell repays the visitor 
who may chance upon its hospitable 
soil. All along its beautiful shores arise 
pleasant homes and hostelries for the 
accommodation of tlie summer visitor; 
while inland, the rolling hills, prosper- 
ous with growing grass and coming har- 
vests, are not without a quiet and restful 
beauty which pleases the eye, and sol- 
aces the mind and heart. In the little 
hamlet of Apponaug, close by Coweset 
Bay, the brave new Town Hall, one of 
the finest in New England, testifies to 
the enterprise as well as to the prosperity 
of the people. Its newness is in harmo- 
nious touch with the prevalent appear- 
ance of the country around it. There is 



10 SAMUELL GORTON 

nothing old, ajDparently, in old Warwick 
but the sub-soil and rocks, and here and 
there a venerable tree antedating Euro- 
pean occupation, beneath the branches 
of which Pomham and 8occononocco,, 
with their dusky braves, may have sat 
and smoked the pipe of peace with the 
men of Massachusetts, or taken counsel 
as to the best means of circumventing 
the united wiles of the head-sachem of 
the Narragansetts, Miantonomi, and his 
persistent allies, the pale-faced ^'Gorton- 
oges." 

Yet old "Warwick has a history sur- 
passed in interest by none other of the 
New England settlements. Its founder 
was a man of intellectual and moral 
force, worthy to rank with Roger Wil- 
liams, William Bradford, and the other 
noble founders of our liberties. He was 
a man much misrepresented in his day 



SAMUELL GORTON II 

and generation, and but little remem- 
bered and understood even in our own 
time, when history is being studied anew 
in the light of evolution and a true his- 
torical method, and reconstructed on the 
principles of enlightened scholarship and 
impartial justice. The later history of 
War\A4ck also has much of interest for 
the patriotic American. On its shores 
the first blow of our Eevolutionary 
struggle was struck, in the capture and 
destruction of the British schooner Gas- 
pee ; while the heights of Warwick IS'eck 
Avere then crowned Avith a fort, lono^ 
since dismantled, for the protection of 
the settlements around Coweset Bay 
from the attacks of the EnHish. 

o 

It is the Warwick of the seventeenth 
century, not that of the eighteenth or 
nineteenth, that I would fain call to the 
minds of my readers, — the Warwick 



12 SAMUEIX GORTON 

Avhose inland 'acres were covered with 
the primitive wilderness, where wolves 
and Indians were at home,* and the 
white man was a stranger; the Warwick 
which Samuell Gorton sought after be- 
ing frozen out of Boston, banished from 
Plymouth and Pocasset, and driven by 
contentions from Providence and Paw- 
tuxet. 

Yonder, on Conimicut Point, he built 
his block-house,f and therein defied for 
a day and a night the force of Puritans 
and savages in equal numbers, aggre- 
gating more than four times his own, 

* ' * Beniamin Gorton Killed A woolf e And brought ye 
head & Skine to my house ye 21st day of December, 
1674." — [Unpublished Town Records, of Warwick.'] 

f The site of the block -house has usually been placed 
on the North Side of the Mill Pond, at Old Warwick. 
Recent investigations, however, strongly favor the 
more natural site at Conimicut. I am told that Judge 
Brayton was convinced that this was the true location, 
before he died. 



I 



SAMUELL GORTON 13 

whicli Massachusetts sent against him; 
finally surrendering to superior battal- 
ions to prevent blood-shed. Farther 
south, at the head of Warwick Cove, 
a quiet arm of the Narragansett, stood 
his humble homestead, where he passed 
his declining years in the honorable ser- 
vice of the To^V'U and Commonwealth 
which he helped to found; the land 
surrounding w^hich has remained in un- 
broken succession in the hands of his 
descendants to the present day. Near 
by, John Greene, John Wickes, Kandall 
Holden and the other men, good and 
true, who were his colleagues and sup- 
porters, cleared and tilled their allotted 
acres, making the wilderness to blossom 
as the rose. 

Yes, there are after all some remind- 
ers of these primitive times besides tlie 
sub-soil and the ancient cedar by the 



14 SAMUELL GORTON 

Potowomut River; for yonder, at lioeky 
Point, the perennial clambake celebrates 
in aboiwinal fashion and in their native 
haunts, the shore-feasts of the Indians. 
And down on Potowomut Neck which 
Warwick won for her own after long 
and litigious struggles, once the favorite 
camping ground of the aborigines, you 
may still pick up the flint arrow-heads 
Avhich they fashioned and left behind 
them three centuries ago. You may 
paddle up the Pawtuxet, under the 
over-arching branches of noble trees, 
into quiet reaches of the river, Avhere 
the hum of cities and the Ijustle of civ- 
ilization seem remote indeed. And in 
the new Town Hall at Apponaug you 
may shut OTit the noises of the day, and 
curiously con the ancient records of the 
Town ; — you may see the very pages on 
wliich these pioneers of a new civiliza- 



SAMUELL GORTON 15 

tioii bore testimony to their humble be- 
ginnings, and tohl, in part, the story of 
the building of a State. I have searched 
these records faithfully — here, and in 
the library of the Historical Society at 
Providence, where other precious manu- 
scripts are preserved. Some of these 
men I have come to know. I have 
thought their thoughts after them in 
deciphering their writings. I have felt 
their throbbing human hearts, laboring 
to lay the foundations of a Common- 
wealth wherein liberty should be secure 
under the protection of law; wherein 
the civil power should haA e no control 
over the consciences of men. Somethino: 
of this would I lay before the impartial 
reader; in justice to these men who so 
labored that we might enter into their 
labors and reap the ripe fruits thereof; 
in justice also t(> ourselves, that we as 

2* 



16 SAMUELL GORTON 

Aiiiericaii citizens may not remain i^- 
norant of this forgotten chapter in the 
nol)]e story of the beginnings of onr 
National life. 



SAMUELL GOUTON 17 



II 

SOURCES OF IXFOmiATION 

The story of Sainuell (lorton is in a 
large part the narrative of the begin- 
iiino-s of the Commonwealth of Khode 
Island. If I mistake not, it also con- 
stitutes an important and hitherto un- 
recognized chapter in the history of the 
beo:innin2:s of our National life. It is a 
story but little known to the average 
American citizen. It has been briefly 
told by John M. Mackie, in Sparks' 
American Biography, and by Gov. Ar- 
nohl in his noble volumes of Rhode. 
Island History. Certain pliases of it 
have been discussed and amplified in 
the interesting monographs of Judge 



18 SAMUELL GORTON 

Staples and Judge Bi-ayton."^ William 
D. Ely has thrown important light upon 
-some salient points in Gorton's history, 
in reports published in the Proceedings 
of the R. I. Historical Society. f Pal- 
frey has touched it lightly and with 
scant justice in his History of New 
England, and Fiske, in his Beginnings 
of New England, has given it inade- 
quate treatment. J Other historians have 
alluded to Samuell Gorton but to dis- 

*Notes to "Simplicities Defence against Seven- 
Headed Policie," by Judge W. R. Staples. [R. I. 
Hist. Soc. Coll.] 

Also "A Defence of Samuel Gorton," By George 
A. Brayton, late Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Rhode Island. [Provide7ice : Sidney S. Ride?'.] 

f Report on the Settlement of Warwick, 1642, and 
the Seal of the R. I. Historical Society, by William D. 
Ely and John P. Howland, (Proceedings, 1887-88,) and 
Report of the Committee on the Library, (Proceedings, 
1890.) 

t Fuller's "History of Warwick" also contains some 
sympathetic allusions to Gorton's story. The Hon. 
William P. Sheffield, in an address before the R. I. 
Historical Society (1893). does him less than justice. 



SAMUELL GORTON 19 

tort and misrepresent his actions and 
•opinions. 

A mere rehash of the narratives of 
Machie, Arnold, and Brayton would be 
unworthy of the attention of this learned 
Society. To ignore their conscientious 
■efforts to do justice to the founder of 
Warwick and co-\\'orker with Roger 
Williams in the building of a Common- 
Avealth dedicated to the principle of 
Soul Liberty, would, on the other hand, 
be unjust and impossible to one wlio 
would rightly sketch the history and 
estimate the work of Samuell Gorton. 
In the light of all that these just-minded 
sons of Rhode Island have written upon 
this subject, I have studied it anew and 
independently, making use of all avail- 
able printed material, and also of valu- 
able unpublished manuscripts and town 
records. I have arrived at certain con- 



.20 SAMUELL GORTON 

•elusions, quite unexpected when I com- 
menced my investigations, concerning 
Gorton's political and religious philoso- 
phy, which, if correct, will modify pre- 
viously received opinions of the man 
and his work, and which seem to me 
sufficiently vital and important to merit 
the attention of all students of American 
history. It is the main object of this 
paper to set forth the substance of these 
conclusions, witli some reference to the 
documentary evidence on which the}^ are 
based. For the instruction of those who 
have not made this somewhat obscure 
episode in Rhode Island history a spe- 
cial subject of investigation, some ac- 
count of the leading facts of Samuell 
Gorton's career becomes a preliminary 
necessity. 



SAMUELL GORTON 21. 



Ill 



.THE MAN AND IIIS WORK 

Who was Samuell Gorton? What 
part did he play in onr Cokmial his- 
tory? These questions let us Ijriefly 
ans^ver before we attempt a somewhat 
careful study of his religious and politi- 
cal opinions, about which there has been 
so much misunderstanding. Samuell 
Gorton was born in the parish of Gor- 
ton, England, a few miles from the 
present bustling city of Manchester, 
about the year 1592.* He came of a 
good family, ''not entirely unknown," 

*Mackie, et al. A letter of Gorton's seems to fix 
this date with reasonable certainty as the year of his. 
birth. 



22 SAMUELL GOKTON 

says Judge Bray ton, "to the heraldry of 
England.""^ Here, as Gorton himself 
declares, "the fathers of his body had 
dwelt for generations." 

We know but little about his early 
life. Though he did not attend' any of 
the celebrated schools or universities of 
England, his education seems to have 
been carefully conducted by private tu- 
tors.f As with many other students of 
his day, the Bible was his principal text- 
book. He could read it in the original: 
he was a master of both Greek and 
Hebrew. And he brought to the read- 
ing a vigorous intellect and a more orig- 
inal and independent judgment than is 
commonly applied to theological studies. 

* A Defence of Samuel Gorton and the Settlers of 
Shawomet, p. 5. 

fin a letter to Nathaniel Morton, Gorton says: "I 
was not bred up in the Schoole of humane learninge,^ 
and I bless God that I never was." 



SAMUELL GORTON 23 

Samuell Gorton probably dwelt in 
tlie vicinity of his birthplace until he 
was about twenty-five years of age.* 
Here he made the acquaintance of a 
Separatist Elder, afterwards connected 
with the church in Holland, whence 
came the Mayflower Pilgrims. His mind 
readily assimilated the spirit of the Pu- 
ritan revolt ao^ainst the desrenerate for- 
malism of the times; yet his Puritanism 
was without taint of dogmatic narrow- 
ness. He always retained an affection 
for the church of his fathers. ^'I drew 
my tenets," he says, "from the breasts 
of my mother, the Church of England."f 
In his early manhood he left Gorton 
and went to seek his fortune in the great 

* Vide Mackie, and others. Gorton himself refers to 
liis father as "a merchant of London," which would 
possibly imply an earlier removal. 

f Calendar's Historical Discourse, p. 9. I have not 
yet found this letter of Gorton's in the original. 
3 



24 SAMUELL GOKTON 

English metropolis. In London he en- 
gaged in business, and built for himself 
a home. In a certain conveyance signed 
during his residence there, he is de- 
scribed as "Samuell Gorton, clothier,'^ 
and also as "Professor of the misteries 
of Christ." Eeligion and daily occupa- 
tion were never divorced in his con- 
sciousness. He would not make a trade 
of the former, nor could he conduct the 
latter on a plane inconsistent with those 
moral and religious principles which 
dominated his life. His business as a 
"clothier," in the phraseology of the 
day, was that of a branch of manufac- 
turing — the finishing of cloths after 
w^eaving. It is doubtful whether he 
met with great pecuniary rewards in 
his chosen industry. His enemies after- 
wards said that he left London in debt, 
to avoid imprisonment threatened by his 



SAMUELL GORTON 25 

creditors. Of this there is no valid evi- 
dence ; we may dismiss it on the author- 
ity of his explicit denial."^' '^I left my 
native country," he said, "to enjoy liber- 
tie of conscience in respect to faith 
towards God, and for no other end." 

Samuell Gorton arrived in Boston in 
March, 1 636-7. t A few months before, 
Roger Williams had been banished from 
Massachusetts Bay. The Colonial au- 
thorities were now agitated by the 
heresies of Anne Hutchinson and John 
Wheelwright. 1^ They, in turn, were 
shortly compelled to seek other dwell- 
ing places to secure opportunity for 
free expression of opinion. Evidently, 

*The fact that lie subsequently returned and spent 
some time in London, unmolested, also militates against 
this charge. 

11636, O. S. 

:j:The trial of Wheelwright was in progress when 
Gorton arrived. 



26 SAMUELL GORTON 

the liberty of conscience which Gorton 
sought was not to be safely exercised 
in Boston. He turned his steps toward 
Plymouth, the home of the Separatist 
Pilgrims, hoping there to iind the goal 
of his desires. In Plymouth he hired 
for four years a part of the house of 
Ralph Smith, formerly the minister of 
the Plymouth church, of whom Roger 
Williams for a brief time had been the 
colleascue. Here Gorton first met the 
founder of Rhode Island, while on a 
visit to his former home. Gorton dwelt 
cpiietly in Plymouth* for a time, with 
his family; his wife, Mary,f whom he 

* Under date of June 7, 1637, his name appears on 
the roll of a company of volunteers from Plymouth to 
aid Massachusetts in the Pequot war. He probably 
saw no service, 

f An early tradition, the origin of which I have not 
been able to trace, gives the name of Gorton's wife as 
Elizabeth. In the New England Historical and Genea- 
logical Register, (Vol. XLIV; however, there is a record 



SAMUELL GORTON 27 

married in London, of whom lie says: 
^'8he liad been as tenderly brouglit np 
as any man's wife then in town," his eld- 
est son Samuell, a boy of six years when 

of the bequest of Mary Mayplett, of London, widow, 
on Dec. 7, 1646, to lier daughter, '^ Mary Gorton, wife 
of Samuell Gorton, being in New England," of "all 
the money which her said husband Samuell doth owe 
me, and a breed of cattle which he hath of mine." In 
a later volume (XLYI), there is a record of the will of 
"John Maplett, Doctor of Physicke, of the city of 
Bath, Somerset," dated April 16, 1670, which contains 
the following clause: "I give and bequeath unto my 
dear sister, Mistress Mary Gorton, of New England, 
the sum of 20s., and to each of her children I give the 
sum of 10s. apiece." Dr. John Maplett, the brother- 
in-law of Samuell Gorton, was eminent in letters as 
well as in medicine, having been for a time the Princi- 
pal of Worcester College. ( F^■rfe Stevens's Cyc. of Nat. 
Biography.) Samuell Gorton's oldest child was a 
daughter named Mary, probably for her mother. His 
youngest daughter w^as named Elizabeth, but the late 
date of Dr. Maplett's bequest to his sister Mary pre- 
cludes the idea of a second marriage. There appear 
to have been at least two instances in the later history 
of the Gorton family of marriages between Samuells 
and Elizabeths, and it is probably from this that the 
confusion has arisen I am indebted to Mr. Adelos 
Gorton, of Philadelphia, for important facts bearing 
on this question. 



3* 



28 HAMUELL GOKTON 

lie left England, his daughter Mary, and 
one or two other children ; and one Mrs. 
Aldredge, a worthy woman, a widow, 
and a servant of Mrs. Gorton's. 

It was the latter member of his house- 
hold who got him into trouble with the 
Plymouth authorities. She committed 
the unpardonable sin of smiling in meet- 
ing, on what provocation we know not.'^ 
Samuell Gorton defended her before 
the magistrates, and advised her not 
to appear in person to answer to their 
charges, w^hicli were based upon no ex- 
press allegations of the violation of law. 
He vigorously denounced their action as 
in opposition to those English prece- 
dents Avhich the customs of many gen- 
erations had established for the legal 

* Winslow afterwards vaguely accused her of "hav- 
ing made some unworthy speeches and carriages." 
( ' ' Hypocrisy Unmasked"). 



SAMUELL GORTON 29 

protection of persons unjustly accnsed 
of violations of the public peace. For 
liis alleged contumacy and mutinous be- 
havior he was fined, held under bonds 
to keep the ])eace, and sentenced to ban- 
ishment from the Colony within fourteen 
days.* 

From Plymouth, he made his way to 
Pocasset, the new settlement which the 
followers of Anne Hutchinson had be- 
gun on the island of Aquidneck, in 
Narragansett Bay, Avhere he arrived, 
probably, some time in December, 1638. 
The weather was cold and the journey 
perilous. His wife, in delicate health, 
had an infant at the breast, sick with 
measles, which "struck in" under the 
exposure, nearly causing its death. At 
Pocasset Gorton's name appears as one 

*For an account of Gorton's trial see Plymouth Col- 
ony Records, Vol. I, pp. 100, 105, under date "o Nov. 
1638." 



'30 SAMUELL GORTON 

of four out of fifty-nine freeholders to 
whicli the title of ^^Mr." is prefixed, 
then an indication of social position and 
gentle birth.* The government of Po- 
casset was at first theocratic, a judge 
and ^ve elders constituting its- magis- 
trates, who were bound to execute jus- 
tice "according to the laws of God." 
A majority of the community desired a 
more democratic form of government; 
and Coddington, the judge (afterwards 
Governor of the united Colony), with 
the elders, and a few other free-holders, 
emigrated to the southern end of the 
island, where they founded the town of 
Newport.f The remaining free-holders. 



* Vide Portsmoutli Records, under date " Aprill the 
30th, 1639." 

f April 28, 1639, William Coddington was Governor, 
under the Royal Charter, from May, 1674, to May, 
1676, and from Aug. 28, 1678, to Nov. 1 of the same 
year, dying in office. 



SAMUELL GORTON 31 

including Samuell Gorton, tlius forsaken 
by their magistrates, instituted a new 
to^vn government, and clianged the name 
of the settlement to Portsmouth. This 
occurred in the spring of 1639. A year 
later,'"' the two settlements were united 
under one government for the transaction 
■of affairs of common interest, and the 
influence of Coddington and the New- 
port magistrates became potent througli- 
out the island. Gorton and his friends 
regarded this coalition as irregular and 
illegally constituted. It seems never to 
have been sanctioned by a majority of 
the free-holders. He appears to have 
declined to admit allegiance to it, and to 
have permitted his citizenship to lapse, 
though still retaining his residence. 
It was not long before he became 

*Marclil2, 1640. 



^2 SAMUELL GOKTON 

involved witli the Portsmoiitli authori- 
ties in a controversy concerning an al- 
leged assault of liis servant on a woman 
who had trespassed on his land in pur- 
suit of a cow which was also a trespasser. 
Gorton again defended his servant, and 
denied the legal constitution and juris- 
diction of the court. ^'They did not 
have the choice of the people," he says, 
" but set up for themselves. I know not 
any more that was present in their crea- 
tion but the clergieman who blessed 
them in their inauguration." His lan- 
guage Avas doubtless vigorous and not 
wholly parliamentary.* His keen sense 
•of justice was outraged by the proceed- 
ing, and his sympathetic nature led him 
to severe retorts upon a witness who, in 

♦He is said to have characterized the magistrates as 
"just asses," and to have called oue of the witnesses 
a " jack-an-apes." (See charges in Portsmouth Re- 
cords). This occurred in August, 1640, 



SAMUELL GORTON 33 

his opinion, swore falsely, and the mag- 
istrates wlio were biased in favor of tlie 
prosecution. For his alleged mutinous 
behavior he was imprisoned and again 
sentenced to banishment. His enemies 
say that he was also whipped,* but the 
Portsmouth records, which are explicit 
in reciting the charges and the other pen- 
alties, make no mention of this infliction. 
There is evidence, also, that he had many 
friends and sympathizers in the settle- 
ment. One of these, John Wickes, for 
refusing to testify and denying the legal- 
ity and jurisdiction of the court, was 
placed in the stocks, and with four others 
was banished and disfranchised. f 

*So Leckford (1641), Winthrop and Morton. Judge 
Staples questions this. Gorton himself refers to "fines, 
whippings and banishments out of their jurisdiction," 
suffered by himself and friends. (SimpUciiies Defence). 
See also Edward Winslow's " Ilypocrisie Unmasked.''' 

f For charges against Gorton see Portsmouth Town 
Records. There, also, under date " Mch. 16, 1642," is 



34 SAMUELL GORTON 

The little circle of congenial and incle* 
pendent souls was growing under perse- 
cution. From Portsmouth they pressed 
on to Providence, and though apparently 
seeking to avoid rather than to encourage 
controversy, they soon became involved 
in disputes Avliich had already divided 
that settlement into two parties.^ I 
shall not enter into the merits of this, 
controversy, which involved civil and 
not religious questions. As in Ports- 
mouth, Gorton denied the legality of 
the self-constituted town government, 
and held that justice could not be main- 
tained until the law w^as administered 



a record of the banishment and disfranchisement of 
Wickes, Carder. Holden, Shotten and Potter; an action 
practically reversed on the 19th of the following Sep- 
tember. (Portsmouth Records). They had already left 
Portsmouth before their official banishment. 

I There is reference to these controversies in Provi- 
dence Records under date Nov. 17, 1641, in which 
Gorton's name is mentioned. 



SAMUELL GORTON 



under autliority delegated by the Mother 
Country. He was as anxious as any 
for liberty, but he would have liberty 
protected by law. As an Englishman, 
dwelling in a community of English- 
men, he claimed the protection of those 
principles of law and ecpiity, which, 
since Magna Cliarta, had l:)een thrown 
around all British citizens. For a time 
his vigorous maintenance of this doctrine 
brought him in conflict even with Roger 
Williams, who, Winthrop says, accused 
Gorton of "bewitching and bemadding 
poor Providence " with his new and rad- 
ical opinions."^ 

Gorton and his friends purchased land 
and commenced a settlement at Popa- 
quinepaug, or Pawtuxet, within the 
jurisdiction of Providence; but certain 

* There are strong reasons for questioning the au- 
thenticity of this k'tter. 



36 SAMUELL GOKTON 

of Ms enemies wlio owned adjoining 
property determined to pre\^ent liis 
peaceful occu]3ancy. William Arnold 
and a few others, to insure bis expul- 
sion, gave in their allegiance to Massa- 
chusetts, and called on the government 
of that Colony to remove the intruders. 
This, however, is by no means to be 
regarded as an official action of the 
town of Providence, or as in accordance 
with the desires of a majoiity of her. 
citizens. It is probable, in fact, that a 
majority were sympathizers with Gor- 
ton."^ Nevertheless, not from mere pu- 
sillanimity, but out of a desire for peace, 
and a disinclination to embroil Provi- 
dence with her more powerful neighbor, 
the Gortonists moved on, beyond the 

*This is admitted by Kuowles, the biographer of 
Roger Williams. Arnold, certainly, had few sj^mpa- 
thizers. None of the five "Disposers" of the town 
took part in this action. 



SAMUELL GORTON 37 

jurisdiction either of Providence Plan- 
tations or of Massaclinsetts. Gorton 
purchased of Miantonomi, head sachem 
of the Narragansetts, and of Pomham 
and Soccononocco, under-sachems claim- 
ing local jurisdiction, a tract of land 
vsouth of Pawtuxet and west of Narra- 
gansett Bay, then known by the Indian 
name of Shawomet.* 



*Tlie first deed of land beyond tlie Pawtuxet was 
made to John Greene, Oct. 1, 1642, aud signed by 
Miantonomi and Soccononocco. The deed to Samuell 
Gorton and others, of the Shawomet lands bears date 
on the 13th of the following January (1642, O. S.). 



38 SAMUELL GOETON 



IV 



TROUBLOUS TIMES AT SIIAWOMET 

Not yet, however, were the harassed 
Gortonists to be secure in their posses- 
sions. Pomham and Soccononocco w^ere 
induced by the enemies of Gorton to 
repudiate their signatures to the deed 
of Miantonomi. They made their sub- 
mission to the government of Massachu- 
setts and begged its aid to expel the 
Gortonists from Sliawomet."^ There are 
some reasons to believe that this action 
^vas not altogether disconnected from a 
possibly more remunerative offer made 
them by the Atlierton Company, an 

*Tlie submission of Pomham and Soccononocco to 
Massachusetts bears date "June 22nd, 1643." 



SAMUELL GORTON 39 

organization wliicli had been formed by 
tbe astute Commissioners of the New 
England Confederation, for the purchase 
and sale of Indian lands."'^ 

Gorton and his companions were sum- 
moned to Boston to make answer to 
Pomham's claim.f Denying the juris- 
diction of Massachiisetts, in a spicy 
correspondence, Gorton refused to obey 
the summons. Increase Nowell, Secre- 
tary of the Colony, and the Boston 
Elders, discovered no less than twenty- 
six instances of blasphemy, "or there- 
abouts," in the terms of Gorton's epistle. 
The Gortonists were warned that if they 
continued contumacious they would be 
regarded as ''fitted for the slaughter," J 

* Vide '' Narragansett Historical Register,'' Vol. I, 
pp. 16, 17, et seq. 

t Sept. 12, 1643. 

t Reply of Nowell and the Boston authorities to 
Gorton, vide '' Simplicities Defence." 

4* 



40 SAMUELL GOliTON 

and would be peremptorily dealt witli 
by force of arms. A company of twenty 
white men and an equal number of In- 
dians, under the command of Captain 
Cook, AN^as dispatched to seize them and 
bring them to Boston for trial. On 
their approach, the Gortonists sent their 
Avomen and children across the bay, 
retired to their block-house on Conimicut 
Point, and awaited the invading force of 
the enemy. A company of peace-makers 
from Providence"^ demanded a parley, 
and proposed the arbitration of the mat- 
ters in dispute, to prevent the sliedding 
of blood. The Gortonists appealed to 
the King and were willing to arbitrate, 
but the proposition was sternly rejected 

*"A11 ministers of tlie Gospel." (Brayton.) The 
Providence men were Chad. Brown, Thomas Olney, 
William Field and William Wickenden, Sheffield says 
"Brown and Wickenden afterwards became clergy- 
men." {iSamuell Gorton, p. 45). 



SAMUELL GOKTON 41 

by Gov. Wintlirop. "You may do well 
to take notice," he said, "that Ijesides 
the title to land between the English 
and the Indians there, there are twelve 
of the English that have subscribed 
their names to horrible and detestable 
blasphemies, who are rather to be judged 
as blasphemous than they should delude 
us by winning time under pretence of 
arbitration." 

The Gortonists stood siege for a day 
and a night,^ and repelled the attempt 
of the men of Massachusetts and their 
savage allies to set fire to the block- 
house; then, to save bloodshed, under 
promise that they would be treated as 
neighbors, and that their claims would 
be submitted to fair judgment in Massa- 
chusetts, they surrendered to superior 

* Sheffield says "for several days." (Address before 
K. I. Historical Society, February, 1893). 



42 SAMUELL GORTON 

force, and were taken to Boston for 
trial."^ They speeclil}^ found, however, 
that they were regarded as prisoners 
and not as "friends and neighbors" 
seeking a jnst and amicable settlement 
of civil disagreements. The soldiers, 
Gorton says, were ordered to knock 
down any one who should utter a word 
of insolence, and to run any one tlu'ough 
who might step aside from the line of 
advance. When they arrived in Boston, 
'^the chaplain (of their captors) went 
to prayers in the open streets, that the 
people might take notice that what they 
had done was done in a holy manner, 
and in the name of the Lord."f 



*Tlie invaders also took and sold eiglity head of 
cattle belonging to Gorton and Ms friends. 

f A full account of this contest, with statements of 
both parties, appears in Gorton's '' Simx>licitie8 De- 
fence,'' (first ed., London, Aug. 3, 1646.) See also 
Winslow's '' Hypocrisie Unmasked." 



SAMUELL GORTON 43 

There was no pretence of a judicial 
•consideration of their rights as settlers 
iit Shawomet. They were regarded as 
criminal offenders, and were examined 
-and convicted on the charo^e of l)las- 
phemy. Gorton was placed on trial for 
his life before the General Court and 
Convocation of Elders. Four (jueries, 
referring to statements in liis vigorous 
rejoinder to the summons of the Massa- 
chusetts authorities, were propounded, 
and upon his replies the decision of the 
Court was to be rendered:"^'* 

"1. Whether the Fathers, who died 
before Christ ^vas Ijorn of the Virgin 
Mary, were justified and saved only 
])y the blood which hee shed, and the 
-death which hee suffered after his in- 
carnation ? 

* Gorton was at first ordered to formulate his answers 
'' icWii a fifteen minutes," but on appeal was given until 
■tlie next morning. 



44 SAMUELL GORTON 

"2. AVliether the only price of our 
redemj)tion were not the death of Christ 
on the cross, with the rest of his suffer- 
ings and obediences, in the time of his 
life here, after hee was born of the 
A^irgin Mary? 

''3. Who was the God whom hee 
thinks wee serve? 

" 4. AVhat hee means when hee saith, 
wee worship the starre of our God 
Eemphan, Chion, Moloch?" 

The latter question may well have 
piqued the curiosity of the elders. The 
others were evidently framed to secure 
conviction. His replies Avere as wise 
and conciliatory as perfect sincerity 
would admit, but it was foreordained 
that they should be unsatisfactory to 
his judges. All but three of the elders 
voted for the penalty of death. The 
representatives of the people, however, 



SAMUELL GORTON 45 

to tlie honor of Massacliusetts, refused 
to assent to this verdict*. Gorton suf- 
fered imprisonment in Charlestown, with 
a ball and chain attached to his ankle ; 
the other accused persons were incar- 
cerated in irons in other towais of the 
Colony. The next General Court, some 
months later, set them at liberty,! but 
banished them from all places within 
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts — the 
intention being to include the disputed 
territory at Shawomet, which Massa- 
chusetts claimed under the deed of 
Pomham. 

As they w^ent forth from their prison 
houses, the Gortonists recited their 
wrongs in the public streets in Boston 
and elsewhere to crowds of willing lis- 

^ By two maj ority ! 

f Gorton was taken to Boston as "prisoner of war," 
Oct. 13, 1643. He was sentenced Nov. 3, 1643; re- 
leased Mch. 7, 1643-44 (1643, O. S.). 



46 SAMUELL GORTON 

teners and ready sympathizers. Palfrey 
admits that a majority of the people in 
Massachusetts were to be counted in 
this category.* The sufferings of these 
martyrs were the seeds of a new Com- 
monwealth, from which the persecuting 
spirit was at last eliminated. The Indi- 
ans, also, even in the vicinity of Boston, 
received them gladly. Cutshamelvin, the 
chief sachem of the neighborhood, to 
whose wigwam the liberated men acci- 
dentally strayed, when asked by Gorton 
whether Capt. Cook, the commander of 
their captors, was a g(^od captain, re- 
plied, ''I can not tell; but the Indians 
regard those as good captains when a 
few stand out against many." 

Their chief grievance during imprison- 
ment seems to have been that they were 
compelled to attend the Sunday services 

* History of New England, Vol. I. 



SAMUELL GORTON 47 

in the cliurclies, and be '^ preached at " by 
the Puritan ministers. "They brought 
us forth unto their congregations to hear 
their ministers," says Gorton, with a 
grim humor, illuminated by some knowl- 
edge of natural history, "which was 
meat to be digested, but only by the 
hearte or stomacke of an ostrich."^'' 
Pastor AYard, of Ij)swich, who visited 
one of them — Richard Carder, an old 
neighbor of his in England — while in 
prison, and urged him to recant his here- 
sies, said by way of encouragement, " it 
shall be no disparagement to you, for 
here is our revered elder, Mr. Cotton, 
who ordinarily preacheth that publickely 
one 3^eare, that the next yeare hee j)nb- 
lickely repents of, and shows him selfe 
to bee very sorrowful to the congrega- 



* Simplidiies Defence against Seven Headed Policie. 
5 



48 SAMUELL GORTON 

tion."* As liis sly dig at Mr. Cotton 
would indicate, Pastor Ward was en- 
tirely sound in his own theology. This 
appears also in his " Simple Cobbler of 
Agawam," where, with a spicy use of 
capitals, and vigorous if not elegant 
English, he denounces the brains of 
those who advocate ^'Libertie of Con- 
science in matters of Eeligion," as " par- 
boiled in impious ignorance." 

*Tlie reference is to Mr. Cotton's championship of 
Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian heresy. 



SAMUELL GORTON 49 



V 



SHAWOMET BECOMES WARWICK 

After his release, in tlie spring of 
1643-44, Gorton returned througli Slia- 
womet, where he was forbidden to lin- 
ger, to Portsmouth, where he and his 
friends w^ere received with open arms, 
and where he was shortly elected to a 
magistracy on the very scene of his 
former persecutions. 

Thus far the Atherton Company ap- 
peared to have made substantial pro- 
gress in its efforts to obtain possession of 
the Shawomet lands, and Massachusetts 
seemed likely to succeed in throwing a 
girdle of unfriendly possessions around 
the Providence Plantations, thereby sep- 



50 SAMUELL GORTON 

arating them from tlie Aquidneck settle- 
ments/ and securing a permanent control 
over Narragansett Bay. By tlie submis- 
sion of Arnold and tlie malcontents of 
Providence, they had obtained a show 
of authority over the Pawtuxet or Pop- 
aquinepaug territory. Winthrop had 
secured possession of Prudence Island 
in Narragansett Bay by purchasing the 
half originally owned by Roger AVil- 
liams/''' and now with a marvellous in- 
consistency, held the whole by a title 
derived solely from Miantonomi, the 
chief sachem of the Narraoransetts. If 
he could maintain his denial of the 
rights of Gorton to the Shawomet lands 
claimed by even a stronger title, he 



* Williams probably sold his lialf of Prudence to 
obtain money to pay his expenses to England, when 
he went to make application for a charter. The pur- 
chase was in the name of a friend and co -partner of 
Winthrop, one Parker, a merchant of Boston. 



SAMUELL GORTON 51 

would succeed in liis efforts to divide 
the Narragansett settlements and estab- 
lish the claims of Massachusetts. With 
this end in view, the Massachusetts 
authorities built a block-house for Pom- 
ham on Warwick Neck, and temporarily 
succeeded in excluding the Grortonists 
from their Shawomet possessions. 

Gorton, however, was not idle. He 
had no thought of permanently relin- 
quishing the claim for which he had 
contended so bravely, and to which he 
was justly entitled. Within forty days 
of his release from prison, by a masterly 
piece of strategy and statesmanship, he 
inaugurated measures which completely 
check-mated his opponents, and gave 
him a permanent advantage in the con- 
test for supremacy. On the 19 th of 
April, 1644, by the earnest advice and 
solicitation of Gorton, the Narragansett 

5* 



52 SAMUELL GORTON 

Indians, in solemn conclave, constituted 
tlieir " trusty and well-beloved friends," 
Samuell Gorton, John Wickes, Kandall 
Holden and John AVarner, commission- 
ers to convey their submission to the 
British Government. The deed of sub- 
mission, signed by the sachems Pessicus, 
Conanicus, Mixan, Awoshosse and Tom- 
anick, is preserved in the Historical 
Cabinet at Providence. The tragical 
death of the head sachem, Miantonomi, 
in the previous September, at the hands 
of his bitter enemies, the Moheo;ans, 
with the consent of the Boston elders — 
a story so well told by Dr. Fiske in his 
^'Beginnings of Xew England" that I 
need not repeat it here, — as well as the 
revolt of Pomham and Soccononocco, 
Avere powerful arguments with the ]N"ar- 
ragansetts in favor of seeking the protec- 
tion of the British Government; while 



SAMUELL GORTON 53 

the return of Gorton and his compan- 
ions, unscathed, from the prisons of 
Massachusetts, convinced the Narragan- 
setts that the power of the Mother 
Country was on their side, and had 
stood between them and their oppres- 
sors. 

In August, 1645, the Commissioners 
of the United Colonies, in session in 
Boston, declared war against the Narra- 
gansetts, and dispatched a military force 
to Ehode Island ; at the same time warn- 
ing the General Assembly of Providence 
Plantations, then in session at Newport, 
that if they adhered to their declared 
determination of maintaining a position 
of neutrality they would be regarded 
as enemies. They also forbade them 
to exercise the powers of government 
under the charter obtained by Roger 
Williams. 



54 SAMUELL GOETON 

III response to this tlireateiiiiig action 
of 'Hhe Massacliusetts," Gorton, Greene 
and Holden set sail, after vexations 
delays, under authority of Providence 
Plantations, from the Dutch settlement 
at Manhattan for Holland, whence, after 
more delay, they obtained transportation 
to England. The exact time of their 
arrival at London is unknown, but they 
had been preceded by the agents of 
Massachusetts, and were compelled to 
meet the charges already formulated by 
their enemies. Their answer, ^^repared 
by Gorton in '^Simplicities Defence," 
was published in London on the 3d of 
August, 1646. Soon after, "^ a patent 
was issued to Gorton and his colleagues 
which granted the Shawomet lands to 

*The date ordinarily assigned to this patent, "Aug. 
19, 1644,'' must be erroneous. It was probably granted 
two years later, when Gorton was in England. 



SAMUELL GOBTON 55 

them and their successors forever, and 
guaranteed them protection against all 
other claimants. In the troublous times 
between the King and Parliament the 
formal submission of the Narragansetts 
which Gorton had conveyed to England, 
could not be delivered to King Charles 
in person, and Gorton accordingly caused 
it to be published in London. By this 
admirable piece of strategy and states- 
manship he forever blocked the move- 
ments of Massachusetts Bay for the 
control of the Narragansett country. 
Gorton received safe-conduct from the 
Earl of Warwick, on his return, through 
the domains of the enemy." 

*Tlie manner in wliicli the authorities of Massachu- 
setts Bay recognized this safe-conduct was character- 
istic. Under date of " 13th May, 1648," the following 
entry appears in the Colonial Records : ' ' Vppon the 
request of the Earle of Warwicke, the Court allowes 
Samuell Gorton, now a shipboard, one full weeke after 
■the date hereof, for the transportatio of himselfe & 



56 SAMUELL GORTON 

Roger Williams, who had finally ac- 
cepted Gorton's theory of the true 
foundations of the new government, 
had preceded him to England, and on 
the Uth of March, 1643-44, had ob- 
tained a charter for the Colony which 
united the northern and southern towns 
in one Commonwealth. Owing to the 
opposition of the Coddington faction, 
government w^as not completely organ- 
ized under this charter until May, 1647.t 
In the same year, town government was 
organized at Shawomet, the Town, in 
honor of its patron, receiving the name 

his goods Ibrough or iurisdictio to the place of his 
dwe'ling, he demeauing himselfe inoffensively, accord- 
in ge to the contents of the Sd carle's I're, & that the 
marshals or some of them shall shew him a coppie of 
this order, or fix it to the maine mast of the shippe in 
which he is." — 3Iass. Records, Vol. Ill, p. 127. 

f Warwick was not named in the Charter, as the 
town was not organized when it was granted ; but it 
united with the other towns in 1647, in the first Gen- 
eral Assembly of the entire Colony. 



SAMUELL GORTON 57 

of Warwick. Some further futile at- 
tempts were made by Massachusetts to 
enforce her claims, but the Gortonists 
thereafter retained possession, which 
gave them ^'nine points of the law," 
and finally complete victory. Pomham, 
for whom Massachusetts had erected a 
block-house on Warwick Neck, lingered 
in the neighborhood a few years, but at 
last saw that the " Gortonog-es " had 
triumphed in their long contest with 
tlie " Wattaconoges,"* and in 1665 sold 
out his dishonored claim for £30 in 
peage,f paid him by Gorton and his 

* These were the names given the contesting parties 
of white men by the Indians. The latter, Roger Wil- 
liams says, means "coat wearers," which leads Dr. 
Fiske to query whether the Gortonists habitually went 
in their shirt sleeves ! 

fPeage, or wampum, was legal tender in Rhode 
Island until 1662, and doubtless still passed current 
among the Indians. The bill of sale bears the name of 
Pomham's son, but in its terms binds Pomham as well 
as his heirs. 



58 SA^IUELL gokton; 

associates. Tlie new Commonwealtb 
was fairly launched upon the sea of 
History; the town of Warwick and its. 
founder were to play an honorable part 
in the story of its beginnings. 



I 



SAMUELL GORTON 59 



VI 

SAMUELL Gorton's later career 

During the succeeding quarter of a 
century Samuell Gorton was active and 
influential in shaping the destinies of 
the growing State. He occupied the 
highest places of honor and responsi- 
bility at the gift of his fellow-citizens, 
and was habitually called into service 
when sound judgment, prompt and 
courageous action, and literary ability 
were requisite. He represented Ports- 
mouth in the Assembly at Newport in 
1645. He was chosen one of the Com- 
missioners of the town of Warwick to 
the General Assembly on his return 



60 SAMUELL GORTON 

from England, and served therein a 
greater part of the time for the next 
two or three decades. He was placed 
on the most important committees, and 
his pen was frequently called into requi- 
sition to prepare State papers, and letters 
to the magistrates of other Colonies, and 
to the representatives of the new Com- 
monwealth in England. Though absent 
in the Mother Country during the first 
year of Colonial Government under the 
charter of 1643-44, his political views 
were embodied in the remarkable Code 
of 1647, passed by the first General 
Assembly of the United Colony, one of 
the earliest compilations of law in Amer- 
ican history. In the construction of this 
Code, care was taken to avoid the errors 
of which Gorton had complained, in the 
judicial procedure of the other Colonies, 
by making each section conform to exist- 



SAMUELL GORTON 61 

ing English law,* reference to the cor- 
responding English statute being placed 
at the end thereof.f 

The provision respecting witchcraft is 
especially noteworthy as indicating a 
prevailing scepticism in Rhode Island at 
a time when Massachusetts was under 
the spell of the delusion, soon to break 
forth in an appalling epidemic of perse- 
cution. The object of its introduction 
is evidently the set purpose of conform- 
ing to English precedents rather than a 
conviction of the legislators that the 
statute was demanded by any real pub- 
lic necessity. The section reads : 

*The Charter of 1643-44 provided "that the laws, 
constitutions, punishments for the civil government 
of the said Plantation be conformable to the laws of 
England so far as the nature and constitution of that 
place would admit." 

f Gorton's legal acquirements were evidently supe- 
rior to those of any other man in the Colony. He was 
one of the first Judges of the Colony. 



62 SAMUELL GORTON 

" Witchcraft is forbidden by this pres- 
ent Assembly to be used in this Colonie; 
and the Penaltie imjyosed hy the autliori- 
tie that wee are subjected to^ is felonie of 
death.— I Jac. 12."* The Code of 1647 
also forbade imprisonment for debt, and 
is otherwise in advance of most contem- 
porary legislation. The temper of the 
Colony on the subject of Avitchcraft is 
still further evidenced in the testimony 
of their opponents,f who complained in 
an anonymous letter addressed to the 
agent of Massachusetts in England a few 
years later, that the new government was 
ignoring the English law. This epistle 
especially stigmatized '^some of them at 
Shawomet that cryeth out much against 
them that putteth people to death for 
witches, for they say there be no other 

* Historical Records, Vol. I, p. 166. 

f William Arnold and the Pawtuxet malcontents. 



SAMUELL GORTON 63 

witches upon earth, nor devils, but your 
own pasters and ministers, such as they 
are."* There ^v^as apparently never a 
prosecution in Rhode Island under the 
statute against witchcraft. 

Samuell Gorton's literary style is clear- 
ly evident in the remarkable statute 
against negro slavery, passed by the 
General Assembly in 1652 — the first 
legislative edict of emancipation ever 
adopted in America. This statute was 
passed during the Coddington secession 
of 1651-54, and consequently voices of- 
ficially only the sentiment of Providence 
and Warwick. Roger AVilliams was in 
England at the time of its passage, and 
there can be little doubt that Samuell 
Gorton was its author and principal 
advocate. Though it subsequently be- 

* Hazard's State Papers, p. 555. Quoted in R, I. 
Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. 235. 
6* 



64 SAMUELL GOKTON 

came a dead letter, it ^vas apparently 
never repealed, and merits perpetuation 
in tlie annals of tiie anti-slavery conflict. 
It reads as follows: 

'' Whereas there is a comon course 
practised amongst English men to buy 
negers, to the end that they may liave 
them for service or slaves forever; for 
the preventinge of such practices among 
us, let it bee ordered, tliat no Idacke 
mankinde or white, being forced by 
covenant Ijond or otherwise, to serve 
any man or his assigns longer than ten 
yeares, or untill they come to bee twen- 
tie four yeares of age if they bee taken 
in under fourteen, from the time of their 
cominge wdthin the liberties of this Col- 
lonie. And at the end or terme of ten 
yeares to sett them free as the manner is 
^vitli the English servants. And that 
man that will not let them goe fi'ee, or 



I 



SAMUELL GORTON 65 

shall sell them away elsewhere to that 
end that they may bee enslaved to others 
for a long time, hee or they shall forfeit 
to the Colonie forty pounds." '^ 

Samuell Gorton was elected General 
Assistant, a position corresponding with 
that of Lieutenant Governor, in 1649, 
and in 1651, during the Coddington 
secession, he was chosen to the highest 
position at the gift of the Common- 
w^ealth — he l^ecame its President. Dur- 
ing the following year, he was Moderator 
or Speaker of the General Assembly, 
and he several times subsequently served 
as General Assistant. He was also ac- 
tive in the affairs of the Town of War- 
wick, being for many years a member of 
the Town Council, and holding other 
positions of honor and responsibility. 
^' After the venerable founder of Provi- 

*ColoDial Records (May 19, 1652). 



€6 SAMUELL GORTON 

ilence," says liis biograplier,* "no man 
Avas more instrumental in establishing 
the foundations of equal civil rights and 
''soul liberty' in Khode Island than 8am- 
uell Gorton." He was especially active in 
assuring the protection of the Colony for 
the persecuted Quakers.f He sent them 
messages of sympathy when they were in 
prison in Massachusetts, and was author- 
ized by the General Assembly to reply 
to the epistles of the Massachusetts au- 
thorities protesting against their finding 
an asylum in Rhode Island. When Mas- 
sachusetts appealed to England, Samuell 
Gorton was designated to prepare a letter 
on behalf of the Rhode Island Govern- 
ment to John Clarke, the representative 

* John M. Mackie. 

\Vide "Certain Letters which Passed between the 
Penman of this Treatise and certain men newly come 
out of Old England into New," By Samuell Gorton. 



SAMUELL GORTON 67 

'of the Colony in the Mother Country, 
to be presented to the Lord Protector, 
Oliver CroniAvell. He requests Clarke 
"to plead our case in such sorte as wee 
may not bee compelled to exercise any 
civill power over men's consciences, so 
long as humane orders in poynt of civil- 
ity are not corrupted and voyalated, 
which our neighbors aboute us doe fre- 
quently practise, whereof many of us 
have large experience, and doe judge it 
to bee no less than a poynt of absolute 
€rueltie." "' 

On the collapse of the Puritan Com- 
monwealth in England, Samuell Gorton 
was appointed on a Committee to select 
agents of the Colony in England, and 
prepare an address to his Majesty, King 
Charles the Second.f As a result of 

* Colonial Records, 1658. 
flbid, 1665. 



€8 SAMUELL GOKTON 

this action, and of the wise intercession 
of John Clarke, then representing the 
Colony in England, the Charter of 1663 
was seciured, in which Samuell Gorton 
M^as named as one of the incorporators 
of the new Commonwealth. In 1663 
he was also appointed by the Town 
Council "overseer" of the will of John 
Smith, Deputy from Warwick, under the 
<3urious provision by which the towns in 
Rhode Island made wills for persons 
dying intestate, dividing their property 
according to the communal sense of jus- 
tice. In 1666, after the purchase of 
Pomham's claim, Mr. Gorton w^as as- 
signed ten shares in Warwick Neck, 
and was still further recognized in 
another division in the following year.^^ 
In 1675, during the storm and stress of 
King Philip's war, tradition says that 

* Records of the Town of Warwick (unpublished). 



SAMUELL GORTON GO' 

Samiiell Gorton's life was saved by 
friendly Indians, wlio rowed him across 
the Bay to a place of safety. He was 
ahvays on amicable terms with the 
aborigines, treating them justly, teach- 
ing and exhorting in their settlements, 
and msely advising them in various 
emergencies. 

Warwick suffered severely in the con- 
test with King Philip, which would 
doubtless have been prevented had the 
policy of Roger Williams and Samuell 
Gorton in dealing with the Indians been 
generally adopted. The town was de- 
populated, the houses and barns were 
burned, and the cattle driven into the 
wilderness. A pitched battle was fought 
in an open cedar swamp in Warwick 
between the Indians under Canonchet 
and a company of men from Plymouth.^ 

* Greene's Short History of Rhode Island, p. 76. 



70 SAMUELL GORTON 

Many of tlie colonists took refuge on 
Aquidneck, the waters around wliicb 
were patrolled niglit and day by a flotilla 
of four boats, filled with armed men. 

Judge Staples tells us that John 
Wickes, the friend and colleague of" 
Samuell Gorton, trusting too implicitly 
to the friendship of the savages, remained 
and was slain; his head being set upon 
a pole as a warning to others. In this, 
he must be mistaken, however, since the 
will of John Wickes, dated the second 
day of March, 1688, and signed by him- 
self, though written and witnessed by 
Samuell Gorton, the younger, may bC' 
seen to-day in the library of the 
Historical Society in Providence. This, 
interesting document also contains the 
signatures of two others of the founders, 
of Warwick, — Randall Holden, the jus- 
tice before w^hom it was proved, and 



SAMUELL GORTON 71 

John Greene, who signs in behalf of 
himself and the other members of the 
ToAvn Council. 

On the fourth da}^ of June, 1677,. 
probably the year of his death, Samuell 
Gorton, Senior, was elected "to the 
Towne Counsell for the ensuing yeare,'' 
as the ancient records tell us, and his 
son, Capt. Samuell Gorton, was at the 
same time chosen To^^n Treasurer. On 
the 2()tli of Julv the father signed a 
deed of lands o^vned by him in the Nar- 
ragansett Country to his sons, his six 
daughters and their husbands also being 
remembered in the disposition of this 
property; and on the 27th of November 
of the same year, by another deed, he di- 
vided his entire remaining estate among 
his three sons, Samuell, John and Ben- 
jamin.* To the former, who Avas evi- 

^ Unpublished Town Records. 

7 



72 SAMUELL GORTON 

dently a man after liis own heart, and 
who had aided in supporting the family, 
he gave his homestead at Old Warwick, 
his household furniture, library and most 
precious literary possessions.. He also 
committed to him the care of his mother 
during her widow-hood, providing that 
she should be maintained with conven- 
ient housing and necessaries, and that 
means should be furnished for her ^'rec- 
reation in case she desires to visit her 
friends."* His lands at Coweset, be- 
yond the boundaries of the Shawomet 
grant, he gave in equal possession, undi- 
vided, to his three sons. The document 
attesting the final division of these lands 
by the surviving sons, Samuell and John, 
bears date on the tow^n records, Dec. 4, 



* Vide Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode 
Island. See, also, unpublished Town Records of War- 
wick. 



SAMUELL GORTON 73 

1699, being executed, as it says, "accord- 
ing to the expressed wish of our Ancient 
and Honored ffatlier, Mr. Samuell Gor- 
ton, one of the first settlers of this Plan- 
tation of Warwick in New England." 
His son Benjamin, then deceased, had 
been one of the founders of the new 
toAvn of East Greenwich, the organiza- 
tion of which dates from the year of 
the original bequest. 



74 SAMUELL GORTON 



VII 



SAMUELL GOKTON's POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 



The enemies of Sanmell Gorton 
charged that he was a practical an- 
archist — a denier of all governmental 
authority. As the indictment of the 
Massachusetts magistrates reads : '' Upon 
much examination cfe serious considera- 
tion of yo^ writings, & with yo^ answers 
about them, wee doe charge yo'' to bee a 
blasphemous enemy of the true religion 
of o^ Lord Jesus Christ and his holy 
ordinances, <k also of all civil authority 
among the people of God, perticulerly 
in this iurisdiction." * To the impartial 

* Massachusetts Records, Vol. II, p. 51. 



SAMUELL GORTON 75 

student of this history, his entire career 
offers a sufficient answer to this accusa- 
tion. Even Gov. Arnold, his lineal de- 
scendant and strenuous defender in 
many things, who regarded him as ^^one 
of the most remarkable men who ever 
lived,"* falls into the error of stating 
that "he denied the right of a people to 
self-government." f AVhat Samuell Gor- 
ton really denied ^vas the dogma of 
"squatter sovereignty," that false con- 
ception of popular government which 
holds that a majority of the actual set- 
tlers in any given locality have a right 
to legislate and govern as they please, 
without regard for the claims of the 
minority, the law of civilized commu- 
nities, or the principles of equity and 

* History of Rhode Island. By Samuel G. Arnold, 
t Ibid. 



76 SAMUELL GORTON 

justice. Had lie lived a generation ago 
he would have stood with Lincoln and 
Sumner and Garrison in denouncing this 
mischievous dogma. His doctrine was 
identical with that of the defenders of 
the Union against the alleged right of 
secession. In his own day he held, sim- 
ply, that no Englishman expatriated 
himself by becoming a colonist in the 
possessions of the Mother Country; that 
he did not by emigration to America 
forfeit the rights of an Englishman, or 
the protection guaranteed by the long 
line of statutes, decisions and prece- 
dents, beginning with Magna Charta, 
"which had become the heiitage of Eng- 
lishmen everywhere. 

Samuell Gorton held that as subjects 
of Great Britain the Colonial govern- 
ments should conform in their legislation 
and judicial action to the principles of 



SAMUELL GORTON 77 

English common and statute law."^* If 
chartered, they were bound to do this 
by the terms of their charters. If not 
chartered, each indi\ddual had the right 
to claim the protection of English law, 
and any denial thereof was a usurpation 
of authority. This was the head and 
front of his alleged anarchism. It was 
not anarchism, but the conviction that 
liberty is a chima^ra save under the pro- 
tection of the sacred majesty of law. 
This is good English and American doc- 
trine to-day. It is distinctively Rhode 
Island doctrine. No one two hundred 
and iifty years ago saw it more clearly 
than Samuell Gorton. His political 
vision was more lucid and prescient 
than that of Roger Williams, though 
the latter soon saw tlie force of Gorton's 

*This is substantially the conclusion of Judge Bray- 
ton. (Defence of Samuel Gorton). 



78 SAMUELL GORTON 

position, and adhered to it tlie rest of 
his life. Had Gorton lived until the 
time of Andros and James the Second 
he would have beheld the Colonies 
fighting for their charters as the very 
foundation of their liberties. His posi- 
tion was already justified.* 

In defence of "soul liberty" and the 
limitation of the functions of govern- 
ment solely to civil affairs, Gorton and 
Williams stood side by side from the 
beginning. Authority, he says, cannot 
safely be entrusted to magistrates "if 
their place and ofiice bee not bounded 
within the compass of civill things.'' 
He argues clearly and logically in the 
introduction to his "Incorruptible Key, 
Composed of the CX Psalme," that if 

*Tliat Gorton believed in civil government also 
clearly appears in his correspondence relating to the 
Quakers, where he expressly dissents from their views 
about oovernment. 



SAMUELL GORTON 79 

Biagistrates are permitted to extend their 
.authority to things spiritual they are 
•consistently bound to enforce their own 
'Convictions of religious duty, and to 
persecute all who dissent therefrom. 
The only safety is in forbidding them 
"Ho intermeddle between God and the 
consciences of men. ^ * In that way 
only is the preservation and honour of 
all States, in their several ways of rule 
and government." 

This theory, for the first time in tlie 
world's history, was clearly proclaimed, 
embodied in constitutional law, and prac- 
tically tested, in the Commonwealth 
founded by Roger Williams and Sam- 
uell Gorton. The Puritan theocracy and 
the doctrine of "soul liberty" for a time 
maintained a competitive existence, side 
by side in the New England Colonies. 
The latter besran in relative weakness — 



^0 SAMUELL GORTON 

almost in anarchy — but it survived, 
and ultimately obtained recognition in 
our Federal Constitution. The former 
failed, and was practically discarded 
in less than two generations. Connec- 
ticut, an offshoot from Massachusetts 
Puritanism, under the leadership of 
Hooker reversed the Massachusetts the- 
ory that citizenship should be condi- 
tioned on church membership, and ab- 
sorbed the theocratic Colony of New 
-Haven. Rhode Island gained, in num- 
l3ers and in internal cohesion, and 
Massachusetts lost, with every attack 
which she made on heresy. The idea 
that intolerance and persecution were 
necessary to insure the survival of the 
community — to prevent its disintegra- 
tion — broached by apologetic writers, 
is therefore disproven by the palpal:>le 
facts of history. Disintegration and 



SAMUELL GORTON 81 

secession were ever the products of in- 
tolerance. The story of the Saracens, 
in Spain, the Hnguenots in France and 
the Puritans in England, was repeated in 
Massachusetts. Internal schisms were 
promoted rather than prevented by the 
policy of persecution. 

In the end, local public opinion was a 
powerful aid to the compulsion of the 
Mother Country in compelling the ces- 
sation of persecution. The policy of 
intolerance failed on its own chosen 
ground, and Massachusetts became a, 
powerful and united State only when 
she followed the example of her despised 
Little Sister and became a Common- 
wealth of Ideas as well as a Common- 
wealth of Goods. 



82 SAMUELL GORTON 



VIII 



SAMUELL Gorton's religious convictions; 



Samnell Gorton was a man of a pro- 
foundly religious nature. His views, 
have been little studied, and have been 
greatly misunderstood, both by his con- 
temporaries and the historians of later- 
generations. John Fiske dismisses himi 
with a sentence, in his admirable School 
History of the United States, as "a man 
of queer ideas." The more extended 
reference of this fair-minded historian,, 
in his '^ Beginnings of New England,'" 
hardly does justice either to Gorton's; 
political sagacity, or to the remark- 
able character of his religious opinions.. 
Charles Francis Adams, in his mono- 



SAMUELL GORTON 83 

graph on " Massacliiisetts, its Historians 
and its History," allncles to Samuell Gor- 
ton as a "crude and half-crazy thinkei'." 

His contemporaries in Massachusetts 
assailed him with a choice collection of 
opprobrious epithets in the place of 
arguments : he was an " arch-heretic," a 
"beast," a "miscreant," a "proud and 
pestilent seducer," a "most prodigious 
minter of exorbitant novelties." "' 

Edward Rawson, some time Secretary 
of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
and the ancestor of my own children, — 
a man capable of making vigorous use of 
the sturdy Anglo-Saxon of the period, 
albeit not always grammatically, de- 
nounces him as "a man whose spirit 
was stark drunk with blasphemies and 
insolences, a corrupter of the truth, a 

* Vide Nowell, Rawson, Wintlirop, Winslow, Mor- 
ton, ei al. 



84 SAMUELL GORTON 

disturber of the peace wherever he 
comes ; " and his contemporary, Nathan- 
iel Morton, with whom he conducted an 
animated correspondence, says he "was 
deeply leavened with blasphemous and 
familistical opinions." 

In so far as his religious views have 
received attention in recent years, they 
have been mainly studied in their in- 
complete and incidental expression in 
some of his published works, " Simplici- 
ties Defence Against Seven-Headed Pol- 
icie," and "The Incorruptible Key to 
the CX Psalme," the main object of 
which was political and polemical rather 
than expository of his system of thought. 
The involved style and quaint and 
mystical phraseology have repelled the 
modern student, and ]3revented a clear 
understanding of his theological doc- 
trines. 



SAMUELL GORTON 85 

By far the best and most complete 
exposition of Samiiell Gorton's relig- 
ions convictions is to be found in a 
remarkable manuscript in his own 
hand- writing which has never been 
published, but which is preserved in 
the library of the Rhode Island His- 
torical Society in Providence. I am 
indebted to the Hon. Amos Perry, the 
courteous Librarian of the Society, for 
the opportunity to make a careful study 
of this paper as well as of other docu- 
ments relating to Samuell Gorton's life 
and w^ork. The manuscript to wdiich I 
refer is a running commentary on the 
Lord's Prayer. Merely as a literary 
curiosity it merits the attention of the 
studious and curious. It is in the clear, 
careful, accurate hand-writing of the 
scholar rather than of one accustomed to 
manual industry. The lines are closely 



86 SAMUELL GORTON 

written, the characters are minute, and 
ahnost as accurate as copper-plate im- 
pressions. The manuscript averages over 
two thousand words to a page about the 
size of our modern legal cap. The char- 
acter of the writing makes it exceedingly 
trying to the eyes. The orthography, 
though in some respects archaic, is more 
regular and consistent than in most 
American documents of our Revolution- 
ary era. I have examined many papers 
of contemporary and more recent dates, 
but with the exception of those left by 
his eldest son, Capt. Samuell Gorton, 
who was evidently instructed by his 
father, and whose hand- writing re- 
sembles his so closely as to be dis- 
tinguishable from it with difficulty, 
I have never seen any so clear, system- 
atic, and scholarly in apj^earance. The 
literary form, however, is less admirable 



SAMUELL GORTON 87 

than the clerical execution. The style 
is involved, the sentences are long, and 
the punctuation, though systematic, is 
peculiar. Free use is made of the comma, 
semi-colon and parenthesis, but periods 
are most economically distributed, being 
used literally to indicate a "full stop." 
Sentences usually end with a semi-colon, 
the ensuing clause beginning with a 
capital. The interrogation point was 
apparently unknown. 

When the reader has searched dili- 
gently beneath the quaint and involved 
phraseology, bristling with scriptural 
references and illustrations, and come 
into sympathetic contact with the living 
thought of the writer, the surprising 
thing which is discovered is the remark- 
able modernness of many of Samuell 
Gorton's ideas. It goes without saying 
that he was not '^ orthodox " according 

8* 



SAMUELL GORTON 



to the conventional standards of his 
time, nor yet, perhaps, of our own ; but 
we everywhere touch the personality 
of a vigorous and independent thinker, 
who in many directions foreshadowed 
the views of the advanced thinkers of 
a later day. 

Some of his enemies denounced Sam- 
uell Gorton as an atheist. He was as 
remote as possible from atheistic lean- 
ings. He was not even affiliated Avith 
the deism of his own and the succeeding 
century. His theology was profoundly 
Christian. It was as Christocentric as 
that of Swedenborg, with which it has 
sometimes been compared. Like Swe- 
denborg, he regarded the Infinite and 
Absolute as ][>er se unknowable. Here 
both Gorton and Swedenborg are in 
touch with the modern philosophical 
agnostic. For both, however, Christ i- 



SAMUELL GORTON 89 

anity solv^ed the agnostic problem. In 
Christ they found a perfect expression 
of the divine nature, and the only ration- 
al object of worship.* 

With regard to the nature of Christ, 
however, Gorton and Swedenborg were 
widely separated. Swedenborg's theolo- 
gy is boldly anthropomorphic; Gorton's 
was monistic and impersonal. " The 
word 'person','' he says, "is only bor- 
rowed from men and translated to God. 
^ * That doctrine which ties the 
death of Christ to one perticnler man 
in one time and age of the world, as 
being the scope and intent of God's will 
concerninge the deatli of his son in the 
salvation of the world, that doctrine 
falsifies the death of Jesus Christ, and 



*"The Father was never knowne nor is he know- 
able but in Christ." (Commentary on the Lord's 
Prayer). 



90 SAMUELL GORTON 

sets men upon the law of workes in the 
ground and matter of their salvation, 
by which law no man is justified." ^'' 
Here, too, is another radical distinction 
between his doctrine and that of Swe- 
denborg. The latter turns his most 
powerful batteries upon Paul's doctrine 
of '^ justification by faith," while Gorton 
stands with Luther in its defence. 

The ''law of works" by which Gorton 
says no man is justified, he rightly inter- 
prets as the conception of salvation 
through ceremonial observances ; not 
merely the ritual of Pharisaic Judaism 
denounced by the Master, but the ritual 
and ordinances as ^vell of his own day 
and generation. Here he stands with 
the Friends, as he also did in his oppo- 



*The quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are 
from Gorton's unpublished Commentary on the Lord's 
Prayer. (Commentary, p. 101). 



SAMUELL GORTON 91 

«ition to a "hireling ministry." Wor- 
ship, he taught, is natural to man. Every 
man is called to seek communion with 
the divine in Christ directly, and not 
through priestly mediations. " Prophe- 
sie, prayer, and interpretation of the 
word of God are one," he says: "where 
one is there is the other; they are co- 
insident and co-aparant." All men are 
naturally moved to prayer; all men, 
therefore, may rightfully exhort and 
interpret. To the conventional inter- 
pretations of churches, universities and 
schools, he preferred "the universitie of 
humane reason, and reading of the great 
volume of visible creation." Mr. Gor- 
ton defined prayer as "nothing else but 
the true breath and spirit of the eternall 
word, according to God's intent taken 
^nd rained into the soule, concocted and 
digested in the cauldron of man's neces- 



92 SAMUELL GORTON 

sities, breathing out it selfe unto the 
fountaine and originall of all suply." 

Tlie spirit of prophecy and inspira- 
tion, he taught, is as immediately with 
man now as in any period of the past. 
The tenor of his teaching in this partic- 
ular is strikingly like that of the modern 
transcendentalist. With Emerson, he 
would have asked, '' Why may not we, 
too, seek an original relation with the 
Universe?" In the spirit of transcen- 
dentalism, too, he opposed all sectarian- 
ism. He would not be the founder of 
a sect. He left no organized body of 
disciples.* The sectarian contests of the 
day, even the disputes between Protest- 
ants and Catholics, he deemed of small 
account because they were so largely 

* ' ' Though no church was formed in connection with 
his ministrations, he exercised a powerful influence 
upon the religious views of the Colony." History of 
Warwick, p. 301. By Orris Pay son Fuller, B. A. 



SAMUELL GORTON 93 

about rites and ceremonies, matters 
which he deemed non-essential. "These 
things men contend abonte and make 
great stirre in the world, whilst the 
life and spirit of the gospel lies buried 
under humane ordinances and carnall 
traditions." True worship, he declares, 
is as well exemplified in the offering of 
lambs and bullocks "according to the 
letter of scripture formerly manifested, 
^ * as in bread, wine, wafers, (fee, or 
in Bishop, paster, teacher, elder, deacon, 
(fee, for these things in the outward 
forme simply considered are carnall and 
momentary, but the words of Christy 
they are spirit and they are life." 

While he agreed with the Friends as 
to outward ordinances, Samuell Gorton 
strongly contested some of their other 
teachings, especially the doctrine of the 
"inner light," which he saw might be 



94 SAMUELL GORTON 

interpreted as a particular revelation of" 
infallible truth to the individual.* 8ueli 
an assumption, he claimed, is mischiev- 
ons and erroneous. All revelations must 
appeal for examination, recognition and 
interpretation to the natural human rea- 
son, Avhich is a common possession of 
all men. Mr. Gorton combined with a 
remarkably equable balance, the meth- 
ods of the mystic and the rationalist. 
His mysticism rejected all claims of in- 
fallibility, which logically tend to the 
persecution of dissidents. Yet, while- 
he carried this idea so far that he would 
dispense with all paid ministries, he> 
recognized more fully than most Protest- 
ants of his day the necessity of sound 
learning and thorough acquaintance with 
the Scriptures in their original tongues,, 

*He also differed with the Friends of his day in his; 
views about government. 



SAMUELL GORTON 95 

to assure their correct and valid inter- 
pretation.* 

Thoiigli in the highest degree Christo- 
centric, Samuell Gorton's theology was 
not in harmony witli tlie prevailing 
Trinitarianism of his day. The doctrine 
"received from tlie sclioole men of tlie 
church of Eoome, that hold and teacli a 
trinitie of persons in one simple and 
divine essence, without having respect 
for the humane nature of Christ," he 
characterizes as " a most dangerous and 
pernicious doctrine." It is, lie says^ 
"most derogatory to the glory of the 
son; for in that time lie is deprived of 
the glory of a saviour; for without 
man's nature liee is not Jesus; hee is no 
saviour but in man; hee is not the 
anointed nor the redeemer but in man's 



*Tbis is strongly emphasized in his Commentary on 
the Lord's Prayer. 



96 SAMUELL GORTON 

nature ; and if wee deprive him of that 
glory for a time it is to late to give it 
to him afterwards, because hee ever re- 
mains one and the same." The scrip- 
tural references to the Father, Son and 
Holy Spirit he interprets as recognitions 
of " spirituall distinctions in the nature 
of Christ." They are not separate per- 
sons of a god-head, but distinctions of 
the divine activity, having a unity '^ not 
found elsewhere, but only in Christ.""^' 

With Channing, Samuell Gorton also 
taught the essential divinity of human 
nature — the equal nearness of the di- 
vine spirit to the sinner and to the saint. 
He recognizes a divine spark in every 
human soul, and to this he made his 
appeal.f He also, however, accepted 

* Commentary Mss., p. 11. See, also, p. 14, et seg., 
as well as " SimjJliciiies Defence," (R. I. Hist. Soc. Ed.) 
page 183. 

f Commentary Mss., page 57. 



SAMUELL GORTON 97 

the eternal antagonism of good and evil 
as an unquestionable fact both in scrip- 
tural teaching and in human experience. 
The tendency of the one is to eternal 
life : of the other to eternal death. He 
therefore taught a conditional immor- 
tality, wholly dependent upon the char- 
acter of the individual. ^'Neither can 
any salvation hold proportion with the 
son of God," he says, "but freedome 
from sin." This saved him from the 
errors of Antinomianism.* The doctrine 
of imputed sin and imputed righteous- 
ness he denounces as unworthy of the 
divine character. " God was in Christ 
reconciling men unto him selfe, not im- 
puting their sins." Nor is this work of 
reconciliation limited to any historical 



* Dr. Fiske is in error in classing him as a follower 
of Anne Hutchinson. His theology was original and 
peculiarly his own. (Commentary Mss., p. 58). 



98 SAMUELL GOETON 

period. *^God is eternally a creator, 
eternally a redeemer, eternally a conser- 
vator of peace." 

The substance of his teaching is that 
righteousness is life eternal; sin is eter- 
nal death. This is no arbitrary penalty 
inflicted at the close of man's earthly 
career, or on some future day of judg- 
ment; it is the intrinsic and natural 
result of evil action. The popular dis- 
tinction between a man and his actions 
is delusive and unreal. He could not 
hate the sin and love the sinner. The 
actions are the man. If the actions are 
predominantly evil there is nothing left 
to save. The divine work of regenera- 
tion is at one and the same time the sal- 
vation of the good and the destruction 
of the evil. Both results are effected 
by one and the same natural operation 
of the divine power. ''The righteous- 



SAMUELL GORTON 99 

ness of God is of eternal worth and 
duration; But the one and the other 
[course of life] being wrought into a 
change at one and the same time, thence 
monies the capacity of an eternall life, 
and of an eternall destruction." 

Mr. Gorton distinguishes four distinct 
stages in the historical development of 
religious ideas : the f amil}-, the national, 
the apostolic, and the spiritual or univer- 
sal."^ Considering the period in which 
he wrote, and the fact that the Bible 
seems to have been almost his only text- 
book, his conclusions are remarkably 
consistent with those of modern students 
of sociology and comparative religion. 

The temptation is great to continue 
this line of exposition and quotation, 
but I must bring it to a close with one 

* Commentary Mss., p. 90. 
9* 



100 SAMUELL GORTON 

or two additional passages further il- 
lustrative of the ethical quality of his 
thought. All virtue, he taught, even 
the goodness of God, consists wdiolly in 
the service of others. " The goodnesse 
of God's nature is such," he says, '' that 
it cannot subsiste or bee without com- 
municating it selfe with another, other- 
wise his goodnesse should bee uselesse, 
which can not bee admitted for one 
moment of time, for there is an impossi- 
bility thereof; The naturall temporary 
or tipicall goodnesse of any creature is 
uselesse unlesse it bee communicated 
with another; God never made any 
creature in heaven or in earth simply 
for it selfe, but for the use of another; 
how infinitely more is this true of God, 
who hath made him selfe in Christ to 
bee the goodnesse of the world." 

Heaven, Samuell Gorton taught, is not 



I 



SAMUELL GORTON 101 

to be sought in a future life or in some 
distant part of the universe. The soul 
is even noio in eternity. Heaven is a 
condition of the soul. It may exist 
here and now. "Such doctrine," he 
says, '' as sets forth a time to come, of 
more worth and glory than either is, 
or hath been, keeps the manna for to- 
morrow, to the breeding of worms in it." 
With Theodore Parker, he taught that 
the divine nature is both masculine and 
feminine ; * and in one of the most strik- 
ing and eloquent passages in his Com- 
mentary on the Lord's Prayer he argues 
for the equal recognition of woman in 
the Church, and as a teacher of religion. 
In philosophy, Samuell Gorton was an 

* It is hardly necessary to say that neither Gorton 
or Parker held this doctrine in any materialistic sense. 
It was a lofty philosophical conception that the entire 
creative energy was expressed in the divine nature, to 
conceive which as purely masculine was inadequate, 
anthropomorphic and irrational. 



102 SAMUELL GORTON 

original thinker rather than a student of 
past systems. In theology, he was far 
in advance of the prevailing thought of 
his time. Only a few of the minor sects 
of our own day have yet approximated 
to his views as to the equal position of 
woman in the pulpit and the church ; 
only an occasional strong and indepen- 
dent mind has reached his conception of 
religion as a birthright of the individual 
soul, to which belongs the unalienable 
privilege of investigation and interpre- 
tation, free from priestly mediation and 
sectarian bias. 



;SAMUELL GORTON 103 



IX 

CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, what shall we say were 
the pecnliaT and distinctive contribu- 
tions of Samuell Gorton to the Com- 
monwealth which he helped to found, 
and the life of our later day? I an- 
swer, first, to him more than to any 
other Ave are indebted for the recognition 
and establishment of the principle that 
English law and the rights of English 
citizenship are coextensive with English 
supremacy; and that to secure these 
rights in the Colonies, together with 
the privileges of local administration, a 
charter from the Home Government was 
necessary. This principle had been ig- 



104 SAMUELL GOKTON 

nored or denied by Eoger Williams,* 
and violated by the governments of Ply- 
mouth and Massachusetts Bay. Samuell 
Gorton affirmed it in season and out of 
season; in its defence suffered imprison- 
ment and stripes, and did not rest until 
by the aid of Roger Williams at last 
convinced by his insistency and by the 
stern logic of events, it was accepted 
by the Commonwealth, affirmed in its 
Charter, and embodied in its legislation. 
So firmly was this principle subse- 
quently engrafted on our Colonial sys- 
tem, that it became our strongest defence 
against the encroachments of the Mother 
Country during the Revolutionary strug- 

* The first charge against Roger Williams, on which 
he was banished from Massachusetts Bay, accused him 
of teaching "That wee have not our land by Pattent 
from the King, but that the natives are the true owners 
■of it and that wee ought to repent of such receiving it 
by Pattent." Gorton agreed with Williams as to the 
necessity of purchase from the Indians, but thought 
the charter also necessary. 



SAMUELI, GORTON 105 

gle and gave us an effective pan sto for 
the Declaration of Independence. Nor 
did the severing of the relations with 
the government of England rupture this 
thread of law and equity which bound 
us to our historic past. Ours became 
the heritage of English Common Law: 
ours as well as England's those historic 
rights and privileges of citizenship hand- 
ed down from Magna Charta. 

I answer, secondly, to Samuell Gorton 
more than to any other, all generations- 
of Americans will owe the insistent 
affirmation and consistent illustration of 
the principle of religious individualism 
which is the logical outcome of the 
Protestant idea — the principle which 
strips off the conventional reliance on 
ritual and organization, and places the 
individual soul face to face with the 
problems of life and duty. In our own 



106 SAMUELL GORTON 

generation, Kalpli Waldo Emerson tasi 
been tlie clearest exponent of tkis prin- 
ciple. Gorton was the premature John 
the Baptist of New England Transcen- 
dentalism. 

No portrait, or adecjuate descrijDtion 
of this forgotten Founder of our Liber- 
ties has been handed down to our time.. 
The writer of his brief biography tells- 
us that "His bearing was courteous, his^ 
feelings lively, his mind vigorous and 
well-informed.''"^'* Froui such hints a& 

*Jolm M. Mackie, in " Sparks' s American Biog- 
raphy.'' 

Samuel Eddy, Secretaiy of State of Rhode Island, 
circinn 1820, says of Gorton: "From the first estab- 
lishment of the government he was almost constantly 
in office, and during a long life there is no instance of 
record to my knowledge of any reproach or censure 
cast upon him, no complaint of him, although history 
furnishes abundance of evidence that there were no lack, 
of enemies to his person, principles, or property. This, 
can hardly be said of any other settler of the Colony of 
any standing." Quoted in Judge Bray ton's "'Defence- 
of Samuel Gorton." 



SAMUELL GORTON 107 

^ve may obtain from various sources we 
may picture him as a man of tall stature, 
luarked features and gentlemanly ad- 
dress; blue-eyed — a typical Saxon; of 
an earnest and sympathetic nature; per- 
suasive of speech in conversation and 
exhortation, and freely emphasizing his 
thoughts with appropriate gestures, quick 
to resent injustice, and bold in his denun- 
ciation of wrong-doers/' — more ekxpient 
and effective in his sj)ontaneous utter- 
ances and unstudied efforts than in the 
formal and labored style of his written 
treatises. 

Of his domestic life we know but 
little. From his kindly mention of his 
wife and children in the final disposal 
of his property, we have a right to infer 
that his family relations were harmoni- 

" Vide Wintlirop's Letters, the Portsmouth charges, 
€tc. 

10 



108 SAMUELL GOKTON 

ous. The reverent regard of his sons 
for his wishes, long after his decease, 
shows that the respect which they bore 
for him ^vas deep and lasting. Besides 
the three sons, his family included twice 
that number of daughters. These were 
all married at the time of his decease, 
and the fact that they, conjointly with 
their husbands, were remembered in the 
final disposal of his property indicates his 
affectionate regard for all the branches of 
his household. One of the daughters, 
with the remarkable Scriptural name 
of Mahershallalhashbaz, married Daniel 
Cole, and removed to Glen Cove, Long 
Island, then known as Moscheto Cove, 
and has numerous descendants still re- 
siding in that vicinity."^' 

*The eldest daughter, Mary, married, i Peter Greene: 
ii. John Sanford^ the youngest, Elizal)etli, married 
John Crandall ; Sarah married William Mace ; Ann's 
husband was John Warner ; Susanna's was Benjamin 
Barton. From these marriages have sprung many 
well known Rhode Island families. 



SAMUELL GORTON 109 

More than most men, Samnell Gorton 
lias been honored in the persons of his 
descendants. His oldest son, Captain 
Samuell Gorton, succeeded in some re- 
spects, to the position and inflnence of 
his father and held many posts of honor 
in his Town and State. Benjamin, the 
youngest son, was one of the founders 
of the neio-hborino^ Town of East Green- 
wich. Othniel Gorton, a lineal descend- 
ant of Samuell Gorton, ^vas several times 
chosen to the General Assembly from 
the Town of Warwick, and was Speaker 
of tlie House of Representatives at inter- 
vals dnring and subsequent to the Revo- 
lutionary War. Gen. Xathaniel Greene, 
next to George AVashington, the most 
eminent military leader in the contest 
with Great Britain, traced his lineage 
directly to John Greene and Samuell 
Gorton, noble founders of the liberties 



110 SAMUELL GORTON 

wliieli he fought to sustain ; as did also 
CoL Chi'istopher Greene, of Revolu- 
tionary fame. Albert Gorton Greene^ 
a descendant of John Greene, Samnell 
Gorton and Randall Holden, three of 
the original settlers of Warwick, became 
a jndge of tlie Municipal Court in the 
City of Providence, and is Avell known 
to three o^enerations as the author of 
"Old Grimes," and other popular bal- 
lads and poems. The late Governor 
Henry Lippitt, and the present Chief 
Magistrate of Rhode Island, the Hon, 
Charles Warren Lippitt, as well as the 
late Lieut.-Gov. Samuel G. Arnold, the 
historian of the State, are direct de- 
scendants of Samuell Gorton. The Rev. 
James Gorton, a Baptist minister of in- 
dependent views now living, is a frequent 
contributor on social and religious topics 
to periodical literature. Dr. David Al- 



SAMUELL GORTON 111 

lyn Gorton, of Brooklyn, N. Y., another 
living descendant of Samuell Gorton, 
has won an enviable repntation in the 
practice of medicine, was formerly editor 
of the National Quarterly Keview, is the 
author of an aljle A^^ork on '' The Monism 
of Man," and numerous philosophical 
essays, as well as a treatise on "The 
Principles of Mental Hygiene," and 
voluminous contributions to medical lit- 
erature. In recent years he has contrib- 
uted several able papers to the collections 
of the Brooklyn Ethical Association. 
His son, Dr. Eliot Gorton, is well 
known as an alienist and an able writer 
on this and kindred topics, as is also Dr. 
W. A. Gorton, of the Butler Asylum 
for the Insane, in Providence. Charles 
Gorton, of the same city, wlio owns the 
only complete original edition of Samuell 
Gorton's published works known to exist 

10* 



112 SAMUELL GOETON 

ill this conn try, is a tireless bibliophilist 
and book collector, tlie possessor of in- 
valuable literary and archaeological treas- 
ures. Dexter Gorton is one of the most 
respected citizens of Providence, a man 
of sterling integrity, for many years 
Chief Engineer of the Fire Department 
of that City, now one of its Fire Com- 
missioners, and has several times been 
chosen to the City Council. The de- 
scendants of Samuell Gorton are also 
widely distributed in other portions of 
the country. In the independence of 
mind and literary ability which they 
have often illustrated, the believer in 
heredity will recognize the out-cropping 
of the same sterling qualities which 
characterized the first of their honored 
name who made his home in the new 
world. 

The house ^A'hicli Samuell Gorton 



SAMUELL GORTON 113 

erected and where he spent his later 
years was a land-mark in Old AVarwick 
until within the last half centuiy. From 
its door his eyes could rest on the placid 
waters of Warwick Cove, and beyond 
the meadow could see his cattle grazing 
upon the rounded uplands of Warwick 
Neck. The surrounding scenery is rest- 
ful to the eye, and invites the thoughtful 
contemplation of the deep things of life 
in which his soul delighted. A short 
time since, I visited the spot, and con- 
versed with the oldest representative of 
four generations of his descendants, now 
occupying the ancestral acres. I walked 
up the hill-side back of the house which 
now occupies the site of the old Gorton 
homestead, to the little family grave- 
yard where tradition says that Samuell 
Gorton was laid to rest with the patent 
of tlie Town of Warwick ^^hich he 



114 SAMUELL GORTON 

obtained in England, — a nobler decora- 
tion tlian a royal order — npon bis breast- 
No monumental stone — not even a green 
mound or an over-arching tree — now 
marks the sacred Ijit of earth where hm 
body long since turned to dust. 

All around, however, are the gracious 
evidences that his life and labors were 
not vainly spent. The prosperity of the 
town which he founded and the Com- 
monwealth which he helped to builcl^ 
constitute his most enduring monument. 
South, lies the quiet hamlet of East 
Greenwich, of which his son was one of 
the founders, built in part upon land 
once owned by Samuell Gorton. West^ 
also, lie the rural towns of Coventry 
and West Greenwich, the soil of which 
was largely covered by his original pur- 
chase from Miantonomi. What fortunes 
have been made where he found a Avib 



SAMUELL GOKTON 115 

derness and out of it wrought a liiimble 
home for liis declining years ! What 
untold happiness has filled the throl)- 
bing hearts of the many generations 
that have come after him as they have 
looked out upon the pleasant acres, 
honestly bought of their aboriginal pos- 
sessors, and bravely held as a heritage 
to his posterity! 

The Commonwealth which lie loved 
and served so well 1ms proudly held up 
the banner of Soul Liberty guarded and 
consecrated by Righteous Law, until its 
beautiful symbol ^ has carried Hope and 
Safety to the uttermost parts of our 
American Union. Could this Founder 
of our Liberties look down upon these 
peaceful and prosperous scenes, and pon- 
der upon their vast and beneficent signifi- 

*The Colonial iVssembly of 1647 provided "that the 
seale of the Province shall be an anchor." 



116 SAMUELL GORTON 

cance, hardly would liis unselfisli soul 
miss the monumental stone which yet a 
grateful community shall raise to his 
fragrant memory. In thankfulness of 
heart he w^ould bless the Power which 
has wrought so marvelously in him and 
in those who have followed in his foot- 
steps, and murmur in grateful acknowl- 
edgment, "Yea, Lord, I have seen of the 
travail of my soul, and am satisfied." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following' books, articles and manu- 
scripts have been consulted in the preparation 
of this paper : 

1. Simplicities Defence against Seven- 

Headed PoLiciE. By Samuell Gorton. 
Original Edition, London, Aug. 3, 1646. 
Second edition, 1647. Reprinted in 
Yol. Ill of R. I. Historical Collections, 
with introduction and notes by Judge 
^Y. R. staples. 

2. An Incorruptible Key Composed of the 

cx psalme, wherewith you may open 
THE Rest of the Holy Scriptures. 
By Samuell Gorton. London. 

3. Saltmarsh Returned from the Dead, in 

Amicus Philalethes ; or the Resurrec- 
tion of James the Apostle out of the 
Grave of Carnall Glosses, for the Cor- 
11 



120 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

rection of the Universall Apostasy 
which cruelly biiryed him who yet 
liveth. By Samuell Gorton. London 
Edition. 

4. An Antedote against the Common 

Plague oe the World. - ^ Smart- 
lash Ascended to the Throne of 
Equity, for the Arragnments of False 
Interpretations of the Word of God. 
By Samnell Gorton. London Edition. 
(Dedicated to "His Highness, Oliver, 
Lord Protector of England, Scotland 
and Ireland, with the dominions there- 
to belonging.") 

5. A KuNNiNG Commentary on the Lord's 

Prayer (Matt, vi, 9-13). By Samuell 
Gorton. (Jfss. in Library of the R. I. 
Historical Society, at Providence). 

6 Certain Letters which Passed between 
the Penman of this Treatise and Cer- 
tain Men Newly Come out of Old 
England into New. By Samuell Gor- 
ton. (London Edition). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 121 

7. Letters to Nathaniel Morton and 

OTHERS. By Samuell Gorton. (Some 
of these letters are in the i)ossession 
of Mr. Edward Crowninshield, of Bos- 
ton). 

8. Life of Samuel Gorton. By John M. 

Mackie. (Sparks's American Biogra- 

piiy)- 

9. A Defence of Samuel Gorton and the 

Settlers of Shawomet. By George A. 
Brayton. Late Justice of the Supreme 
Conrt of Ehode Island (E. I. Historical 
Tracts, No. 17.— Sidney S. Eider). 

10. Historical Discourse — Calendar. 

11. Ehode Island Colonial Eecords. 

12. Massachusetts Colonial Eecords. 

13. Eecords of Plymouth Colony. 

14. Town Eecords of Portsmouth. 

15. ToA\^ Eecords of Providence. 

16. Town Eecords of Warwick. (Unpub- 

lished). 

17. History of the Town of Warwick. By 

Orris Payson Fuller, B. A. 



122 bibliography 

18. Naeragaxsett Historical Kegister. 

19. History of the Narragansett Church. 

Updike. 

20. History of New England. By J. G. 

Palfrey. 

21. History of Khode Island. By Samuel 

G. Arnold. 

22. A Short History of Khode Island. 

By George Washington Greene. 

23. The Beginnings of New England. By 

John Fiske, LL. D. 

21. Proceedings of the B. I. Historical 
Society, 1887-88, 1890-91. 

25. Hypocrisie Unmasked. By Edward 

Winslow. 

26. Hazard's State Papers. 

27. Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of 

Khode Island. 

28. The Colonial Era. (American History 

Series). By G. P. Fisher. 

29. Letters of John Winthrop. 



INDEX 

Adams, Charles Francis, on Samuel] Gorton. . 83 

Agnosticism, Gorton's views on 88-89 

Aldredge, Mrs. 

Her trouble with the Plymouth authorities. 28 

Samuell Gorton's defence of 28-29 

Aiiarcliism, Gorton's alleged 74-78 

Anchor, the Seal of Rhode Island 115 

Andros, Governor 78 

Antinomianism 97 and note. 

Apponaiig'. 

Town Hall of Warwick in, 9,14 

Ancient records in 14, 15 

Aquidneck. 

Settlement of 29-31 

Effort of Massachusetts to separate from 

Providence Plantations 49-55 

A refuge for Warwick residents in King 

Philip's war 70 

Arnold, Hon. Samuel G., 

His History of Rhode Island 17, 19 

On Samuell Gorton's political creed 75 

His kinship to Samuell Gorton 75, 110 

11* 



124 INDEX 

Arnold, William, 

His contentions in Providence and Pawtuxet. 34, 36 

His alliance with Massachusetts Bay 36 

His small following 36, note. 

His friends accuse the men of Shawomet, 

62, and note. 

Arrow-lieads 14 

Atliertoii Company 39, 49 

Awosliosse 52 

Barton, Benjamin, 

Marries Susanna, daughter of Samuell Gor- 
ton 108, note. 

Bible, Samuell Gorton's principal text-book. . . 22, 99 

Bibliogiapliy 119-122 

Blasphemy, Charges against Gorton for. ..39, 43, 45 

Boston, Sympathy with Gorton in 45-46 

Bradford, William 10 

Brayton, Hon. George A. 

His Defence of Samuell Gorton. . . .18, and 7iote, 19 

On Gorton's noble connection , 21-23 

On the peace-makers from Providence. . . .40, note. 

Canoncliet 69 

Carder, Richard. 

His banishment from Portsmouth 33-34, note. 

His imprisonment in Massachusetts 47 

Clianning-, William Ellery. 

Samuell Gorton's theology compared with . . 96 



INDEX 125 

Charles tlie First. 

His contest with Parliament. 55 

Charles the Second. 

Gorton prepares an address to 67 

Grants the Charter of 1663 68 

Cliarlestowii, Samuell Gorton's imprisonment 

in 45 

Charter. 

Of Providence Plantations, 1643-44 

53, 56, 60, 61, note. 

Of Warwick 54 

Royal Charter of 1663 68 

Christ, Samuell Gorton's teachings about 

88, 89, 91, 95-97 

Christocentric character of Samuell Gor- 
ton's theology 88 

Church of England, Samuell Gorton's indebt- 
edness to 23 

Clam-bakes 14 

Clarke, John. 

Represents Rhode Island in England 66 

Gorton's letter to, concerning the Quakers. . 67 
Secures the Charter of 1663 68 

CocldiugtOD, William. 

Settles at Aquidneck 30 

Removes to Newport 30 

Establishes a Theocracy 30 

Supported by a minority 31 



126 INDEX 

Coclclingtou, William. 

Opposes union under the Charter of 1643-44 56 

Secedes from the Charter Government 63 

Governor under the Royal Charter 30, note. 

Code of 1647 60-62 

Cole, Daniel, marries Mahershallalhashbaz, 

daughter of Samuell Gorton 108 

Colonial dwellings in Warwick 8 

Coininoii Law of England 76-77, 105 

Conauicus 52 

Coiiiniicut Point. 

Samuell Gorton's Block House on 12, and note. 

The siege of 12, 40-42 

Coiinectieiit rejects the limitations of citi- 
zenship by church -membership 80 

Cotton, John, his alleged heresies 47-48, and note. 

Coventry 114 

Coweset, Gorton's lands in, deeded to his sons. 72 

Coweset Bay 9 

Crantlall, John, marries Elizabeth, daughter 

of Samuell Gorton 108, note. 

Cromwell, Oliver, letter to, concerning the 

Quakers 66-67 

Cntshamekin 46 

Declaration of Independence 105 

East Greenwich. 

Land in owned by Samuell Gorton 72-73, 114 

Benjamin Gorton, one of its first settlers 73 



INDEX 127 

Eddy, Samuel, on Samiiell Gorton's character, 

lOG, note. 

Ely, William D., his studies of the Gorton his- 
tory 48, and noie. 

Einersou, Ralph Waldo, his philosophy fore- 
shadowed by that of Samuell Gorton. . .92, 106 

Ethical teachings of Samuell Gorton 97, 101 

Flske, John, LL. D. 

His account of Samuell Gorton in "The 

Beginnings of New England." 18 

His story of the murder of Miantonomi 52 

On the Gortonoges and Wattaconoges 57, note. 

His inadequate estimate of Gorton's career. 82 
Friends. 

Gorton's defence of 66, and note 67 

His letters to 66, note. 

His theology compared with that of 93-94 

He opposes their doctrine of the "inner 

light." 93 

He opposes their doctrine about Govern- 
ment 94, note. 

Gaspee, burning of - H 

Gorton, Adelos vi, 27 note. 

Gorton, Ann, daughter of Samuell Gorton. 108, note. 
Gorton, Benjamin, 

Kills a Avolf in Warwick, 1774 12, note. 

Inherits estate from his father, Samuell Gorton 71 



128 INDEX 

Gorton, Benjamin, 

Early settler of East Greenwich 72, 109, 114 

Gorton, Charles 111-112 

Gorton, Dr. David Allyn 110-111 

Gorton,c Dexter 112 

Gorton, Dr. Eliot Ill 

Gorton, Elizabeth 108, note. 

Gorton, Rev. James 110 

Gorton, John. 

Inherits estate from his father, Samiiell Gor- 
ton 71 

Shares in final division of the Coweset lands. 72 
Gorton, Mary, eldest daughter of Samuell 

Gorton 27, note, 108, note. 

Gorton, Mary Maplett, 

Wife of Samuell Gorton 26, 27 and note. 

His testimony to her gentle birth 27 

His provision for her in the disposal of his 

estate 72 

Gortonog'es 10, 57, and note. 

Gorton, Othniel 109 

Gorton, Parish of, in England 21 

Gorton, Samuell. 

Born in 1592 21, and note. 

The man and his work 21 

His education 22, and note. 

His residence in London 23-24 

His marriage 24 



INDEX 129 

GortOD, Samuell. 

His emigration to America 25 

His residence in Boston and Plvmoutli 25-29 

His first meeting witli Roger Williams 26 

His troubles with the Plymouth authorities. 28 

His banishment from Plymouth 29 

His ditliculties in Portsmouth 31-38 

His banishment by the Coddiugton Govern- 
ment 33 

His contentions in Providence. 34-35 

His settlement in Shawomet 37 

He is summoned to Boston 39 

Besieged at Conimicut 40-42 

Taken to Boston for trial 43 

Imprisoned in Massachusetts 43-45 

His release and return to Portsmouth 45-49 

Secures the submission of the Narragansetts 

to the British Government 51, 52, 55 

Excluded from Shawomet by ]\Iassachusetts 49, 51 

His voyage to England, 1645-48 - . 54-55 

Secures Charter for Warwick 54 

His later career 59 

His service in the General Assembly 59-65 

Probable author of the statute against slavery 63-65 
General Assistant, Moderator and President. 65 

His defence of the Quakers 66-67 

Incorporator of the Colony under the Royal 

Charter 68 



130 INDEX 

Assigned shares in Warwick Neck 68 

His life saved by friendly Indians during 

King Philip's War 68-69 

Divides his estate among his children 71-73 

His political philosophy 74-81 

His religious convictions 82-102 

His character and personal appearance . . 106-108 
Gorton, Samuell, Jr. 

Born in England, 1630 27-28 

Writes will of John Wickes 70 

Elected Town Treasurer 71 

Trust reposed in him by his father 71-72 

Participates in the final division of Coweset 

lands 72-73 

Gorton, Sarah, daughter of Samuell Gorton. . 
Gorton, Susanna, daughter of Samuell Gor- 
ton 108, note. 

Gorton, Dr. W. A Ill 

Greene, Hon. Albert Gorton 110 

Greene, Col. Christopher 110 

Greene, John, 

Co-settler of Warwick with Samuell Gorton. 13 

First deed of Shaw^omet lands to 37, note. 

Accompanies Gorton to England 54 

Signs will of John Wickes 71 

Greene, Gen. Nathanael 109-110 

Greene, Peter, marries Mary, daughter of 

Samuell Gorton 108, note. 



INDEX 131 

Hireling" ministry 91 

Historical Society, documents in the Library 

of 15, 18, and note. 

Holdeu, Randall. 

Co-settler of Warwick with Samiiell Gorton. 13 

His banishment from Portsmouth 33, 34, note. 

Commissioner to convey submission of the 

Narragansetts 53 

Accompanies Gorton to England 54 

Will of John Wickes proved before him ... 70 

Huguenots 81 

Hutcliinson, Anne. 

Her banishment from Massachusetts Bay. . . 25 

Settles at Aquidneck 29 

Gorton not her follower 97, note. 

Hypoerisie Unmasked 28, note, 33, note, 42, note. 

Immortality, Gorton's views about 97 

Imprisonment for debt forbidden by Code of 

1647 62 

Imputed sin 97 

Incorruptible Key to the CX Psalme. . ..78, 79. 84 
Indians. 

In Warwick 12 

At Pottowomut Neck - 14 

Employed by Massachusetts against Gorton. 40, 41 

Their sympathy with Gorton 46 

They save his life 68-69 

He is their trusted counsellor 69 

12 



132 INDEX 

Inclividiialisni, Samuell Gorton's 77,105 

Inner Light, Gorton opposes the Quaker doc- 
trine of 93-94 

Intolerance. 

Of the Puritans 25 

Samuell Gorton opposes 78, 94 

Its contest with Soul Liberty 78-80 

Final overthrow of 81 

James the Second 78 

Liberty of Conscience. 

Gorton leaves England for 25 

Not found in Massachusetts 26 

Nathaniel Ward on 48 

Upheld by Gorton and Roger Williams 78-81 

Lincoln, Abraham 76 

Lippitt, Hon. Charles Warren 110 

Lippitt, Hon. Henry 110 

London, Gorton's residence in 24 

His return to 54-55 

Lord's Prayer, Gorton's Commentary ou. . .85, el seg. 

Mace, William, married Sarah, daughter of 

Samuell Gorton 108, note. 

3Iackie, John M. his Life of Samuell Gorton. 

17, 21, 23, 106. note, 119 

Mag-na Charta 76 

Maliersliallalliaslibaz, daughter of Samuell 

Gorton 108 



INDEX 133 

Maiiliattaii -^4 

Maplett, 

Dr. John, Brother-in-law of Samiiell Gor- 
ton: his bequest to his sister and her 

children 27, note. 

Mary, wife of Samiiell Gorton 

26, 27, note, 29, 72, 107 
Mary, mother of Mrs. Gorton : her bequest 

to her daughter 27, note. 

Massacliiisetts Bay. 

Intolerance of its government 25 

Gorton banished from 45 

Its contest for the control of Narragansett 

Bay 49-58 

Its efforts blocked by Samuell Gorton 51-58 

Failure of its theocratic policy 79-81 

Miantoiionii. 

Gorton purchases Shawomet of 37. 38 

Winthrop and Roger Williams purchase Pru- 
dence Island of 50, and note. 

His murder by the Mohegans with the con- 
sent of the Boston elders 52 

Mixau '^^ 

Monism, Samuell Gorton's 89 

Morton, Nathaniel, 

On Samuell Gorton, 33 

Gorton's correspondence wilh 22, note, 84 

Mysticism, Gorton's 84, 94 



134 INDEX 

Narragaiisett Bay. 

Gorton's residence on 13, 37, 112 

Settlement of Aquidneck on 29 

Efforts of Massachusetts authorities to con- 
trol 50, 55 

Narrag-ansett Indians. 

Allies of Gorton 10 

Gorton purchases Shawomet of 37 

Gorton obtains their submission to Great 

Britain 51-53 

Massachusetts declares war against 53 

Gorton publishes their submission in Loudon 55 

New Englancl Confederation 39, 53 

Nowell, Increase, on Gorton's alleged blasphe- 
mies 39, and note, 83, note. 

Ordinances of religion, Gorton's opposition 

to 90, 93 

Palfrey, John G. 

His account of Samuell Gorton in his His- 
tory of New England 18 

Admits sympathy Avith Gorton in Massachu- 
setts 46 

Pawtuxet. 

Gorton's settlement in 35 

His contest with William Arnold 36 

His departure from 37 

Contest of Massachusetts for 50 



INDEX 135 

Pawtuxet River 8, 14 

Peag'iie. ... 57, and note. 

Perry, Hon. Amos 85 

Pessieus 52 

Philip, King. 

His war witli tlie white settlers 68 

Samiiell- Gorton's life saved 69 

Warwick's sufferings during the w^ar 69 

A battle fought in Warwick 69 

Philosophy, Samuell Gorton's 74, et seq. 

Pilgrims 26 

Plymouth . 

Gorton's residence in 26 

His banishment from 29 

Sends men to Warwick during King Philip's 

war 69 

Pomliam. 

flis assent to Gorton's Shawomet purchase. . 37 

He repudiates his signature 38 

His submission to Massachusetts Bay 38 

His Block-House on Warwick Neck 51 

He sells his claim to Samuell Gorton. .57, and note. 

Popaquinepaug, (See Pawtuxet.) 

Portsmouth. 

Town-government instituted 29-31 

Union with Newport 31 

Gorton's troubles in 32-33 

Gorton returns to -^^ 

12* 



136 INDEX 

Portsmoiitli. 

Is elected to a magistracy 49 

Union with Northern towns under Charter 

of 1643-44 56 

Pottowoniiit Neck, Indian relics found on... 14 

Pottowomut River 14 

Prayer, Samuell Gorton's delinition of 91-92 

Providence. 

Samuell Gorton emigrates to 34 

Controversies in 34, and note, 35 

Peacemakers from, interfere at Shawomet . . 

40, and note. 
United Avith Aquidneck under Charter of 

1643-44 56 

Providence Plantations. 

Antagonism of Massachusetts to 49-55 

Charter obtained for 56, and note. 

Action of General Assembly of in 1645. ... 53 

Prudence Island. 

Its strategic importance in the struggle with 

Massachusetts Bay 50 

Its purchase by Gov. AVinslow 50, and note. 

Puritans. 

Their revolt against religious formalism. ... 23 

Send an armed force against Gorton 40 

Their preaching to the Gortonists 46, 47 

Their opposition to soul liberty 78-81 



INDEX 



137 



Quakers. 

Gorton's defence of 6G, and note, 67 

His letters to 66, note, 78, note, 118 

His theology compared with that of. . .90-91, 93-94 

Kawsoii, Edward, on Samuell Gorton 83-84 

Religion, Samuell Gorton's views concerning. 82-102 
Relig-ioiis development, Samuell Gorton on. . 99 

Rempliaii, Chion, Moloch 44 

Revolutionary War, the first blow struck in 

Warwick •••• ^^ 

Rites and ceremonies, Gorton's distrust of 

90-91, 92-93 

Rhode Island. 

Interesting character of its early history v, 17 

Settlement of 29-30,34,36 

Soul Liberty established in 15, 19, 78-81 

Contest with Massachusetts Bay 38-58 

First Charier of 56, and note, 61, note. 

Earliest Code of 60-63 

Triumph of Rhode Island principles 79-81 

Salvation by character, taught by Samuell 

Gorton ^' 



Sanford, John, marries Mary, daughter of 

Samuell Gorton m, note. 

Saracens 

OQ 26 

Separatists "^' * 



138 INDEX 

Sliawoniet. 

First settlement of 37, and note, 

Gorton's troubles in , 38-48 

Becomes Warwick 49-58 

Sheffield, Hon. William Pitt. 

His address on Samuell Gorton 

18, note, 40, note, 41, note. 
Simplicities Defence Against Seven-Headed 

Policie 18, note, 33, note, 39, note, 42, 

note, 47, note, 54, 117 

Slavery, Statute against, in 1652 63-65 

Siiiitli, Ralph. 

Gorton hires a house of in Plymouth 26 

Colleague of Roger Williams 26 

Soccononocco. 

Signs deed to Shawomet lands 37, and note. 

Repudiates his signature 38 

Makes submission to Massachusetts. ..38, and note. 
His revolt one cause of the submission of 

the Narragansetts to Great Britain 52 

Soul Liberty. 

Defence of by Roger Williams and Samuell 

Gorton 19 

Rhode Island the first Government founded on 79 

Its final triumph in the Nation 81 

Sources of information 17-20 

Squatter Sovereignty, denied by Samuell Gor- 
ton 75 



INDEX 139 

Staples, Hon. William R. 

On Samuell Gorton 18, and note, 33, note. 

On the death of John Wickes 70 

Sumner, Charles 76 

Swedeiiborg", Emanuel, his theology com- 
pared with that of Samuell Gorton . . . 88-90 

Theocracy. 

Of Massachusetts Bay 35 

Of Coddington's Government 30 

Its contest with Soul Liberty 78 

Its tinal failure 81 

Toiiiauick 52 

Transceiicleutalism. Samuell Gorton a 

forerunner of 92, 106 

Trinitarianisiii. Samuell Gorton's views 

about 95-96 

Unkuovvable. Samuell Gorton's doctrine of. 88 

Wampiiiii, legal tender in Rhode Island 57, note. 

Ward, Nathaniel. 

His exhortation to Richard Carder 47 

His " Simple Cobbler of Agaw^am." 48 

Warner, John. 

Commissioner to convey the submission of 

the Karragausetts 52 

Marries Ann, daughter of Samuell Gorton. 108, note. 
Warwick Cove 13, 113 



140 INDEX 

Warwick, Earl of. 

Grants Patent to Samuell Gorton 54 

Gives Gorton safe conduct through Massa- 
chusetts 55 

Massachusetts recognizes his authority 55, note. 

Warwick, Old and New 7-16 

Beautiful in Summer 9 

Town government organized in 56-57 

Unites with Providence and Aquidneck .... 56 
Samuell Gorton's service of 59-73 

Wattaconog'cs 57, and note. 

West Greenwich. 114 

Wheelwriglit, John, his banishment from 

Massachusetts Bay 25 

Wickes, John. 

His punishment at Portsmouth 33, and note. 

He goes to Providence 34 

Commissioner of the Narragansetts 52 

His supposed death in King Philip's war. . . 70-71 
His will 70 

WilHams, Roger. . 10 ,19, 26. 36, 53, 57, note, 63, 77, 78 

His residence in Plymouth. . 26 

His first meeting with Samuell Gorton 26 

His banishment from Massachusetts Bay 25 

His early disagreements with Gorton .... 35 

His alleged letter to Winthrop of doubtful 

authenticity 35, note. 

He sells his half of Prudence Island.. 50. and note. 



INDEX 141 

T^^illiaiiis, Roger. 

He visits England and secures a Charter. ... 56 

His doctrine of Soul Liberty 19, 78-81 

The first charge against him in Massachu- 
setts 104, note. 

His conversion to Gorton's views of civil 

government • • 77-78, 104 

Wiuslow, Edward, his " Hypocrisie Un- 
masked.". 28, note, 33, note, 42, note. 

Wiiitlirop, John. 

On Gorton's controversy with Roger Wil- 

]i;^nis 'J'5- '^^1^^ '''^^^• 

Purchases Prudence Island oO, and note. 

His inconsistency 50-51 

Defeat of his plans by Gorton . • .... 51-55 

Witchcraft. 

Provision against in Code of 1647 61-62 

Scepticism about in Rhode Island 62 

Charges against the men of Shawomet 62-63 

No prosecutions for in Rhode Island 63 

Woman. Samuell Gorton's favors her equality 

with man in the Church 101, 102 



PUBLICATIONS 



OF 



PRESTON AND ROUNDS, 



PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



I 



History of the State of Rhode Island 

and Providence Plantations, 

1636-1790. 

By SAMUEL GREENE ARNOLD. 

New Edition. 2 vols. Octavo. 574 and 600 pp. $7.50, net. 



Governor Arnold's History of Rhode Island, based upon a 
careful study of documents in the British State Paper Office 
and in the Rliode Island State Archives, supplemented by in- 
vestigations at Paris and The Hague, has from its publication 
been the authoritative history of the State. 

Genealogical students will find in these volumes the names of 
over fifteen hundred persons prominent in Rhode Island affairs. 
This work is of much more than local interest, as the experi- 
ment of religious liberty here tried gives to this history an im- 
portance far beyond the narrow limits of the State. 



" One of the best State histories ever written is S. G. Arnold's His- 
tory of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." — John 

FiSKE. 

"The best history of Rhode Island is that of Arnold." — Prof. 
George P. Fisher, Yale University. 

"Mr. Samuel Greene Arnold in his history of Rhode Island has 
brought together all the extant materials. He brings out more clearly 
than any previous writer the distinct threads of the previous settle- 
ments." — Prof. John A. Doyle, Oxford. 

*' A work prepared after long and careful research. Probably no 
student has ever made himself more familiar with the history of Rhode 
Island than did Arnold. This work abounds, therefore, in valuable in- 
formation." — Pres. Charles Kendall Adams, Cornell University. 



SENT POSTPAID BY THE PUBLISHERS. 
3 



Among Rhode Island Wild 
Flowers • 

By W. WHITMAN BAILEY, 

Professor of Boiany, Brown University, 

Cloth. i6mo. Three full-page Illustrations. 75 cents, net. 



This admirable little volume, the outgrowth of 
the author's ripe experience in teaching and in 
botanizing, contains a popular and interesting 
account of Rhode Island wild flowers as distrib- 
uted throughout the State. The favorite collecting 
grounds are fully described, thus forming a botani- 
cal guide to Rhode Island. 

In writing this volume Professor Bailey has had 
in mind the needs of the nature lover, and has dis- 
carded technical terms as far as possible, adapting 
the work to the amateur as well as the botanist. 

It should be in the hands of every lover of wood- 
land and meadow. 

Forwarded postpaid to any address upon receipt 
of price by the iDublishers. 



Xax Lists of the Town of Providence 

During the Administration of Sir Edmund Andros 
and his Council, 

I686-I689. 

Compiled by EDWARD FIELD, A.B., 

Member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and one of the 
Record Covimissioners of the City of Providence. 

Cloth. Octavo. 60 pp. $1.00, net. 



The " Tax Lists of the Town of Providence" is a compilation 
of original documents relating to taxation during the Adminis- 
tration of Sir Edmund Andros and his Council, 1686-1689. It 
comprises copies of warrants issued by order of the Council for 
the assessment and collection of taxes, the tax lists or rate biils 
prepared pursuant to these warrants, the returns made by the 
townsmen of their ratable property, and the Tax Laws enacted 
by Andros and his Council. All of these, with the excepti(,n 
of the laws, are here printed for the first time. 

Among the rate bills is the list of polls for 1688, which con- 
tains the 7iaines of all males sixteen years of age and Npiuai Js 
living in Providence in August of that year ; practically a census 
of the town. For the genealogist and historian this volume con- 
tains material of the greatest value on account of the great num- 
ber of names which these lists contain, besides showing the 
amount of the tax assessment in each case. 

The returns of ratable property form a study by themselves, 
for they tell in. the quaint language of the" colonists what they 
possess, and therefore shed much light on the condition of the 
times. For a study of this episode in New England Colonial 
History this work is invaluable. 

The index of all names contained in the lists and text is a 
feature of this work. 

Tiie edition is limited to two hundred and fifty numbered 
copies. 

Sent postpaid to any address on receipt of one dollar. 
c 
13* 



Early Rhode Island Houses* 

An Historical and Architectural Study by Norman M. Isham, Instruc- 
tor in Architecture, Brown University, and Albert F. Brdwn, 
Architect. Illustrated with a map and over fifty full-page plates. 

$3.50, net. 

No feature in the study of the early life of New England is 
more valuable or more interesting than the architecture. Noth- 
ing throws more light on the home life of the colonists than 
the knowledge of how they planned and built their dwellings. 

Early Rhode Island Houses gives a clear and accurate 
account of the early buildings and methods of construction, 
showing the historical development of architecture among the 
Rhode Island colonists, the striking individuality in the work 
of the colony and the wide difference between the buildings 
here and the contemporary dwelling in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. 

Those interested in colonial life may here look into the early 
homes of Rhode Island with their cavernous fireplaces and 
enormous beams. The student will find in these old examples 
a valuable commentary on New England history, while the 
architect will discover in the measurements and analyses of 
construction much of professional interest. 

Among the houses described are the Smith Garrison House 
and the homesteads of the families of Fenner, Olney, Field, 
Crawford, Waterman, Mowry, Arnold, Whipple, and Manton. 

A chapter is devoted to the early houses of Newport, which 
were unlike those of the northern part of the State and resemble 
the old work in the Hartford colony. 

Photographs and measurements of the dwellings have been 
made, and from them careful plans, sections, and restorations 
have been drawn ; in some cases six full-page plates admirably 
drawn and interesting in themselves have been devoted to a 
single house. Several large plates give illustrations of framing- 
and other details. It is to be noted that these plates are made 
from measured drawings, that the measurements are given on 
the plates, and that these constitute in most if not all cases the 
only exact records for a class of buildings which is destined to 
disappear at no distant day. It is believed that these drawings, 
and especially the restorations, will give a clearer idea than has 
ever before been obtained of the early New England house, A 
map enables the reader to locate without difficulty the houses 
mentioned in the text. 

The authors have discussed the historical relation of Rhode 
Island work to contemporary building in the other New England 
colonies and in the mother country. The book is a mine of 
authentic information on this subject. 

A list of the houses in the State built before 1725, so far as they 
are known, with dates and a brief description will be found in 
the appendix. 

" This book is probably the most valuable historic architectural 
treatise that has as yet appeared in America." — The Nation. 



THE EAST INDIA TRADE 
OF PROVIDENCE, 

BY GERTRUDE SELWYN KIMBALL, 

By a careful study of log books and com- 
mercial papers of the old shipping firms, the 
author is enabled to present an interesting 
picture of the East India Trade of Providence 
in its palmy days. 

8vo. 34 pages, paper, 50 cents net. 

Sent postpaid on receipt of price. 



THE MAGAZINE 

.♦..OF.... 

NEW ENGLAND HISTORY. 

FOR i^n, \d>92, 1893* 



Having purchased the few remaining complete 
sets of the Magazine of New England History, 
originally published at $6.00, we offer the three 
volumes in parts as issued for $2.50 net per set 
or bound in one volume, cloth, for $3.50 net. 

These volumes contain nearly eight hundred 
pages of information relating to New England 
local, church and family history, including 
records, genealogies, journals, letters and many 
interesting notes and queries. 



WHAT CHEER 

-OR- 

ROGER WILLIAMS IN BANISHMENT, 

A Poem by ,10B DLTRFEE. 

Revised and edited by Thomas Durfee. 

Cloth, Leather Label, 12 mo., 225 pages. Price .|1.25 net 



Topographical atlas 



STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE 
PLANTATIONS. 



By the United States Geological Survey, in co-operation 
with the State. 



Having secured the remaining copies of this Atlas we offer 
them at the following reduced prices. 

In sheets, $1.00 

In portfolio, 2.00 

Bound in cloth, 2.50 

A few bound in half morocco remain and can be furnished 
for $3.50. 

The plates of this Atlas were engraved upon copper in the high- 
est style of cartographic engraving by the United States Govern- 
ment and furnished to the State. From these plates transfers were 
made to stone and the maps printed in four colors, viz : The names, 
roads, railroads and other culture features are in hlack. Kivers, 
ponds, swamps and other water features are in hlue. Contour lines 
and figures denoting elevation are in brown. State, county and 
town boiindaries are in pink over the more exact boundaries in black 
or blue. 

Besides showing all bodies of water and watercourses, common 
roads or highways and railroads, it has one feature distinct from 
and superior to any map of the State hitherto published, viz: 
Contour lines, drawn for each 20 feet of elevation above mean sea 
level. Figures are i^laced upon the heavier contour lines which 
denote elevations of 100 feet, 200 feet, etc., above mean sea level, 
also ujDon hills and bodies of water to denote their elevation. A 
contour line indicating 20 feet depth of water below mean sea level 
is drawn along the coast. In a few cases figures are given to in- 
dicate depths of water of less than 20 feet. 

This Atlas includes 12 maps and 10 pages index and statistics 
in all 22 sheets 21xl6i2. The scale of the survey is 75-9^7777 or one 
mile to an inch. 



MARY DYER 

OF RHODE ISLAND, 

The Quaker Martyr that was Hanged on Boston 
Common, June 1, 1660. 



By HORATIO ROGERS, 

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. 



The author has gathered from many sources the 
scattered facts relating to the career of Mary Dyer 
and woven them into a detailed narrative, so that 
the tragic story of her life is now for the first time 
adequately told. By adding a brief but compre- 
hensive sketch of the manner and sentiments of 
her times he has furnished a background or frame- 
work for his subject which adds much to the in- 
terest of the volume by enabling the reader the 
better to understand the surroundings of the char- 
acters he portrays. The important documents re- 
lating to her trial are printed in the appendix. 

Cloth, 12mo., 115 pages. Price $1.00 net. 

Sent postpaid upon receipt of price by the pub- 
lishers. 



A Summer Visit of Three Rhode Islanders 
to the Massachusetts Bay in I65L 



By HENEY MELVILLE KING, 
Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Providence, R. I. 



Olotb, 12mo., 115 pages. Price fl.OO net. 

Uniform with "Mary Dyer. 



An account of the visit of Dr. John Clarke, 
Obadiah Holmes and John Crandall, members 
OF the Baptist CnrRCH in Newport, E. I., to 
William Witter of Swampscott, Mass., in July, 
1651 : ITS innocent purpose and its painful con- 
sequences. 



" Dr. King's pungent and conclusive essay is a 
timely contribution. He adduces competent evi- 
dence refuting the gratuitous insinuations of Palfrey 
and Dexter, who charged the Rhode Islanders in 
question with sinister political motives and excused 
their alleged maltreatment on that ground. Cita- 
tions from original documents, with a bibliography, 
put the reader in position to verify the allegations of 
the author." — The Watchmcm. 



Sent postpaid upon receipt of the price by the 
publishers. 



Revolutionary Defences in Rhode Island. 

An Historical Account of the Fortifications and 
Beacons erected during the American Revolu- 
tion, with Muster Rolls of the Companies sta- 
tioned ALONG THE SHORES OF NarRAGANSETT BaT, 

with Maps, Plans and Illustrations. 



By EDWARD FIELD. 

Past President of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the 
American Revohition. 



Cloth octavo, with 29 Illustrations and Two Maps. 
Price $2.25 net. 



This volume contains an account of the various works of 
defence erected in the State of Rhode Island during the Revo- 
lutionary War, showing; where and under what circumstances 
they were built, and the names of the officers and enlisted men 
located at many of them at various periods of the war. 
" For nearly three years the British Army was located within 
the State and one of the notable battles was fought within its 
territory. The war map of this battle of Rhode Island, now 
preserved in the State archives, has been especially reproduced 
for this work, and is shown in its entirety for the first time. 

The work is profusely illustrated with plans and views of 
these old earthworks, together with illustrations of the styles 
of equipments and f ac-similes of enlistment papers for the Con- 
tinental Army. A Map of the State of Rhode Island is inserted 
showing the location of each fort, beacon, and coast guard sta- 
tion described in the text. 

Muster rolls and company lists containing the names of more 
than seven hundred officers and enlisted men, many of which 
have been hitherto inaccessible, are here presented. The records 
of Rhode Island Soldiers in the War of the Revolution are scat- 
tered and incomplete, and the names contained in this book will 
be of great assistance to those who desire to ascertain the service 
of Rhode Island Soldiers, or to establish their right to member- 
ship in the hereditary patriotic societies, for the names have 
been carefullj^ transcribed and reference is given in each case 
where the original muster or pay roll may be found. 

Sent postpaid upon receipt of price by the publishers. 



NEW ENGLAND WILD FLOWERS 
AND THEIR SEASONS, 



By W. whitman BAILEY, 

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



Cloth, l6mo. Uniform with " Rhode Island Wild 
Flowers." 75 cents net. 



From long wanderings afield the author has caught 
the charm of the varying moods of our New England 
year, and pictures them for the reader with sympa- 
thetic touch. 

The characteristics of the consincuous and domin- 
ant flowers of the months are sketched iu broad lines 
rendering identification easy. 

The flowers of the White ai]d Green Mountains— 
our alpine flora — receive separate treatment, as 
do also the flowers of the sea -shore — our coast 
flora 

Sent postpaid upon receipt of innce by the pub- 
lishers. 

13 



1 






X<v.„ 



V. 



I' %.^ 









J, ^\^^ 















,0 0^ 



4- -^c^. ". 



.Oo 



» 1 \ 



,0- 



^.^:i-^:% 
















^j- V^ 



*^. . 



■q, '* 



:> N 















H -r, 




i'''\.<^' 









> '^^ 



■A * .'. s ^ \\^^ , ,, „ 



^// 



'^'^o. 



..\' 



s"i<i-. 



'c 



,0o^ 



"rj- 



^'^ s^' 










%/ 






■■^^'\ 






,. \ 1 « i, 'Z' 






'^^ C^ 



.^ 



^^^ s*' 




.'i^ '*;, 







^o 


o' 












~ ^^-^ 






>-■ 




, > 


>" ^ 




S'^K'^' 


\ 


■x^'' 






o 
z 


% 


/ 


,-.^^ 


%■ 






-te 


#■ 


'^^ 

'^^w. 














ci- 




•f 







/, 


^ \ ' 


'rS 



■^^'' ■'■■' 



./y>%-i_ 



^.^. * .0 ^, ^ . ^^ 



^ ^. 






9p, 



^ -''c^. 



^.^ «^^ 



\^ 







^ <^«^- 



<?• 



^S <: 









^.s^ X 



